520 CORVUS CORAX. 



trouble tlie Ravens, and indeed saw but little of them — only about once in 

 each of the first ibur months of the year ; but on the 2nd of May my brother 

 saw the pair alone, and hence it may be inferred that no brood was brought 

 off, though there is no doubt that they nested, and most likely in the same 

 place. Towards the end of February, 1851, he went to the hurst, but saw no 

 birds, nevertheless the nest was found there on the 13th March with three 

 eggs, to which two others were afterwards added. In 1852 we brought away 

 from tlie nest two young birds, which lived and were well known at Elveden 

 as "Grip" and "Ralph" for the next eleven years ^ I will not enlarge on 

 their doings further than to say that after a twelvemonth or more they became 

 a great attraction to their wild parents, one or both of whom would visit them 

 almost daily, arriving about nine in the morning and staying in their company 

 for some three or four hours. On at least one occasion they were joined by 

 a stranger, so that we had the pleasure of seeing five Ravens at once within 

 one hundred yards of the house, and they kept up this habit till 1863, when my 

 acquaintance with them ceased. In 1853 six eggs were laid in the old place; 

 but in 1854 the birds were much disturbed by the largest trees in this hurst 

 being cut down, and their nest was either forsaken or destroyed. They built 

 a second in the same hurst, and it was while the hen was sitting that the cock 

 met the deplorable fate at the shepherd's hands already described. On a new 

 mate being found, a third nest was built, not in the hurst, but on a tree which 

 stood on the heath just outside the western end of the belt. Herein a young 

 bird was hatched and grew to be fully fledged, when it seemed to have been 

 blown out of the exposed nest, and to have been so much injured that it could 

 not fly properly. It probably came to an untimely end, as it was not seen after 

 the first ten days of its leaving the nest. In 1855 what remained of the old 

 luu-it was again tenanted, as it was also in 1856 ; but in 1857, to our great 

 delight, the birds took up their quarters in the Duke's Ride Plantation at 

 Elveden, when six eggs were laid. In 1858 they occupied a tree in the belt 

 itself, and laid seven eggs, the greatest number I ever heard of a Raven laying — 

 - but two of them were addled. In the three succeeding years they returned to 

 the plantation at Elveden, and in each of those years seven eggs were again 

 laid. In 18(''2 and 1863 the nest was undisturbed so far as I was concerned, but I 

 have no reason to think that the eggs or young escaped, and in the course of 

 the next twelvemonth the old birds, as I afterwards heard, were killed — 

 probably by poison, as, through the intercession of my friend the late Mr. 

 Newcome, strict orders had been given by the new owner of Elveden that they 

 should not be shot or trapped.] 



[^ 2782. Ttvo.-^JckVmgham Heath, Suffolk. March, 1849. 



My brother Edward wrote from Elveden, on the 25th March, 1849, to me 

 at Cambridge : — " Last week George Leeks (the son of a warrener) told me 



^ In 1863 I gave them to INIr. Frederick Godman, and they lived for some time 

 at his father's house, Park Hatch ; but they were continually quarrelling, and one at 

 last killed the other. 



