THE RAVEN 85 



rare to find one in such a position. In Palestine the 

 nest is found on mosques and ruined towers. The young 

 Ravens are hatched out sometimes as early as the middle 

 of March, and must be extremely hardy, since no instance 

 of their deaths from exposure has been recorded so far 

 as I am aware. The chicks are at first of a blackish 

 colour, scantily covered with soft loose greyish black 

 down. As they approach maturity, however, there is 

 little difference, except in size, between young and old, 

 but the young are perhaps less glossed. In the more 

 southern of its nesting haunts the Raven takes her young 

 out into the world before the close of April ; farther north — 

 in the Hebrides, for example — it is the middle of May before 

 they are fully fledged. But though the young leave the 

 nest so early the family, old and young, keep together 

 throughout the summer, the mother bird showing a great 

 amount of affection for her brood. The male bird, too, 

 when his mate is sitting, dashes indiscriminately, after 

 the approved manner of the Green Plover, at any bird 

 which approaches the nesting site, and when the intruder 

 has been put to precipitate flight, shoots back to the nest, 

 croaking with pleasure. It is said also that, like the Lap- 

 wing, the male Raven turns completely on his back as 

 he utters his cries. 



Toward the end of July I once had an excellent 

 sight of a brood of seven Ravens near the summit of 

 Ben Nevis, and at a height of well above 4000 feet. 

 The day was a cloudless one., and only the faintest of 

 airs played about those great precipices of Scotland's 

 highest hill. The Ravens when disturbed gave me an 

 exhibition of soaring powers which I have rarely seen 

 equalled except by the Golden Eagle, sailing and dipping 

 in the sunlight with scarcely a motion of their wings 

 before coming to rest, one by one, on a spur about half 

 a mile from me, where they commenced to move actively 



