246 The Common Raven 
Spain Some nests rely solely on their inacessibility combined with 
the remoteness of their situation, and are placed without the 
slightest attempt at concealment. 
The Raven excels most in the art of deception when it nests 
in some of the smaller crags which it frequently resorts to because 
they are inconspicuous and provide caverns or fissures in which 
it can conceal its nest. As a rule nests built in such situations 
are constructed so that no portion of them is visible from 
below. 
Quite the most artistically concealed and cunningly placed of 
the many Ravens’ nests I have visited was one placed in a small 
domed cavern near the summit of a crag not 50 ft. high, vertical 
on one side but sloping so gently on the other that anybody can 
scramble up to it. In this the Ravens nested for over thirty years. 
In 1877 I shot one of the old birds within 20 yards of this spot, 
thinking it was a Tangier Raven, but no nest did I see. Year 
after year I passed close under this crag but there were no signs 
of a nest, although the constant presence of the Ravens told 
me they must be nesting hard by in one of the many rocky ravines. 
At last in 1903 I chanced to be passing the crags with several 
friends and sent two of them along the ravine below the cliff 
whilst | proceeded along the shelving side. Presently I heard a 
shout and was told that a Raven had just flown out of the cliff close 
to me. Looking over the edge | could see nothing, but upon round- 
ing an angle of rock hard by I spied a hole on my side of the crag 
which led to a cavern in which was a Raven's nest with four eggs. 
The secret was out. The wily bird had so arranged its establish- 
ment that no matter which side the enemy, man, appeared, it 
could always slip out on the other side unseen. Small wonder then 
that upon the innumerable occasions when I had passed along the 
goat-track below the nest since 1877, when I first saw a Raven 
there, it had quietly departed by the back door as I approached 
