THE RAVEN 79 



to rear their young in spite of great persecution from 

 the keepers of the district. 



During the spring of 1914 I had the opportunity of 

 studying more than one pair of Ravens in a certain hill 

 district, during which time I succeeded in obtaining the 

 photographs which illustrate this chapter. Altogether 

 three eyries were visited. In each case the nest was 

 placed on a rock in a most exposed position, at altitudes 

 of between one and two thousand feet above sea-level, 

 and was inaccessible except by the aid of a rope, although 

 it was possible to look into it from above. In each case, 

 too, the nesting site had been used every year by the 

 same pair of Ravens or their descendants, and it was 

 interesting to see that, like the Golden Eagle, the owners 

 of the rock had two nests which, presumably, they used 

 during alternate seasons. In the nesting site fu'st visited 

 by the writer and a companion the Ravens showed signs 

 of great uneasiness while we were yet some distance from 

 the rock, so it was with surprise that we found the nest 

 empty, though freshly lined with wool and grass. Quite 

 a month previously the nest had been in the same condi- 

 tion, so the inference drawn was that the eggs had been 

 removed by some collector. From the interest shown by 

 the Ravens in their nesting site, it seemed possible that the 

 hen bird contemplated a second clutch of eggs, although 

 the season, for the Raven, was already far advanced. 



The Corbies were not the only occupants of the rock : 

 Ring Ouzels winged their way past in the bright sunlight, 

 Wheatears flitted uneasily from boulder to boulder, and a 

 Stock Dove moved backwards and forwards across the 

 face of the rock, anxious to return to her eggs concealed 

 in a fissure near the summit of the cliff. 



Some fifteen miles to the westward of the nesting site 

 which I have described above is a rocky glen where a second 

 pair of Ravens have their home. On April 18th I visited 



