36 
The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 
morning shortly after sunrise, when they would be on their way 
to disperse in search of food over the mountain country beyond, 
and in the evening at sunset, on their return to their rookery. 
Whatever the weather they never seemed to deviate more thana 
foot or two from their aerial path, and we have often watched 
them in stormy winds doing their utmost to keep to it. The 
“mountains” evidently afforded them an abundant supply of 
varied food, and we ascribe to this their numbers throughout 
the county, in many parts of which there are very extensive 
and densely populated rookeries. Although the Rook is a 
great thief, stealing grain, potatoes, eggs, and murdering young 
rabbits and small birds whenever he gets the chance almost 
as persistently as the Carrion Crow himself, yet we have always 
considered that the evil he does is outbalanced by the good, 
in his devouring such countless hosts of injurious worms and 
grubs that, if they were not thus kept in check, would soon 
reduce the whole country to a state of desolation and sterility. 
RAVEN, Corvus corax.—Resident. The Raven is still in sufficient 
numbers to justify our considering it as one of the characteristic 
birds of the county. We scarcely ever visited any part of the 
coast without beholding a Raven, or a pair of Ravens, and often 
have we seen them flying overhead far inland. The Rey. C. M. 
Phelps thought that there were about twelve nests of the Raven 
on the cliffs, following the coast round from south to north, and 
there is also a nest or two in each of the islands of Ramsey and 
Skomer, and on a few places inland, in some of the old castle 
walls, and they are said to have bred (and possibly may still do 
so) on the Treffgarne Rocks. ‘Their nests are often placed 
on sites which are beyond the reach of any who might wish 
to rob them. We visited a nest in his parish of Castle Martin, 
in company with the Rey. Clennell Wilkinson, the Rector, 
that was placed on a shelf on the cliff beneath a great over- 
hanging crag, the waves dashing against pointed rocks far below. 
This nest, which was an enormous stack of sticks thickly lined 
with sheep’s wool, had evidently been added to by the pair of 
