298 On the Occurrence of some of the Rarer Species of Birds 



apparently with a common Starling in a pipe at the back of his 

 bedroom window, where he noticed it every morning. He described 

 the bird to me as having a good deal of pink about it, and thought 

 it might be a rose-winged Starling. I went one day to see if I 

 could see it, but was not fortunate enough to obtain a glance of it ; 

 but I always thought it might possibly have been one of these birds. 

 After some little time it disappeared, and I heard no more about it. 



CORVID^. 



Corvus Corax. " The Raven. ^' This grand bird rightly heads 

 the list of the Corvida, or Crow tribe, and still breeds in the county 

 in several place, although I much fear it is annually getting scarcer 

 and scarcer amongst us. You are still enlivened (?) now and then 

 however by its sonorous croak high over your head, where your 

 attention is drawn upwards to the grand pair circling high above 

 you, and the inspiriting sight of which you would otherwise in all 

 probability have missed. The last pair I saw was in the summer of 

 last year (1877), at Hurdcott, the unmistakable croak then, calling 

 our attention to them. They used to breed regularly, and I think 

 still occasionally do, at Claybury Ring — the highest point in South 

 Wilts — and in 1876 they bred at Badbury Ring. 1 have also seen 

 them and their nest in a fir plantation on Wittsbury Down. I no- 

 ticed there that there were two nests in two adjoining trees, which 

 struck me at the time as being rather peculiar, as they usually cling 

 with great tenacity to any tree or spot when once definitely chosen 

 by them. At the same time I saw our sable friends themselves 

 eyeing us askance at a safe distance from their point of observation 

 on the downs, and soon after came across a full-grown rabbit, which 

 they had evidently surprised in the open down and killed — its eyes 

 being peeked out, and bearing upon it other plain marks of their 

 irresistible sledge-hammers of bills. I had a pair of young Ravens 

 some years ago from Breamore, where the tree had been cut down 

 which had borne their nest, one of which proved a most amusing, as 

 well as mischievous pet, pecking off my finest flowers under my eyes 

 and hopping off with them with the greatest sang-froid, as though 

 he had achieved a most praiseworthy deed. Some years ago the old 



