20 NATURAL HISTORY 
clinations, and each was ambitious of surmounting 
the arduous task; but when they arrived at the 
swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was so 
far beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads 
were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to 
be too hazardous. So the ravens built on, nest 
upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day ar- 
rived in which the wood was to be levelled. It 
was in the month of February, when those birds 
usually sit. ‘The saw was applied to the but, the 
wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods 
echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle or mallet, 
the tree nodded to its fall; but still the dam sat on. 
At last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from 
her nest; and, though her parental affection de- 
served a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, 
which brought her dead to the ground. 
