RAVEN. 513 



nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which the 

 wood was^o be levelled ; it was in the month of February, 

 when they usually sit. The saw was applied to the trunk ; 

 the wedges were inserted into the opening ; the woods echoed 

 to the heavy blows of the mallet ; and the tree nodded to its 

 fall ; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, 

 the bird was flung from the nest ; and though her parental 

 aifection deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, 

 which brought her dead to the ground." 



The Reverend Edward Stanley mentions a similar " vener- 

 able establishment." " Ours," he says, " is a noble beech 

 about ninety feet in height, in the centre of a beautiful w^ood, 

 — from time immemorial called the Raven Tree. At one 

 extremity of this wood, a noisy troop of Jackdaws have long 

 been accustomed to rear their progeny unmolested, provided 

 they venture not too near the sacred tree of the Ravens, — in 

 which case, one or other of the old birds dashes upon the in- 

 truder, and the wood is in an uproar, till the incautious bird 

 is driven off. Few have dared to scale the height of this famed 

 tree ; but the names of one or two individuals are on record, 

 who have accomplished the perilous undertaking, and carried 

 off the contents of the nest." 



The young are at first of a blackish colour, scantily covered 

 with soft loose greyish-black down. They are generally abroad, 

 even in the Hebrides, by the middle of May. It has been re- 

 marked that when, during incubation, or even when the young 

 have left the nest, one of the old birds is killed, the survivor 

 soon finds a mate. Ravens, if unmolested, breed in the same 

 spot year after year ; but it seems strange that although they 

 have a numerous brood, their number in any particular dis- 

 trict does not appear to increase ; nor, in so far as I have 

 observed, do two pairs ever breed near each other. 



Young. — The first plumage is of the same colour as that of 

 the adult, but of looser texture, and less glossed. The feathers 

 on the throat are less elongated ; but there is otherwise little 

 remarkable difference between the old and the young. After 

 leaving the nest they continue for many weeks together, and 



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