244 THE RAVEN. 



The Kev, Andrew Baird, writing in 1834, mentions 

 that the Eaven then built in the most inaccessible cliffs on 

 the sea-coast of the parish of Cockbiirnspath.^ Mr. William 

 Patterson, late of the Abbey Farm, North Berwick, who, 

 having lived many years in Coldingham Parish, is well 

 acquainted with St. Abb's Head and the neighbouring coast, 

 has informed me that, about forty years ago, he harried the 

 nest of a Eaven near Dowlaw, a little to the west of Past 

 Castle. The nest was situated in a precipitous cliff over- 

 hanging the sea, and as he could not reach it by climbing, 

 he tried to get the young ones out of it by letting down 

 upon them a fleece of wool attached to the end of a long 

 rope, in the expectation that they would clutch at the 

 wool with their claws, and hang on to it until it was drawn 

 by the rope up to tlie top of the precipice ; but although 

 they seized the wool with their feet, they always fell back 

 into the nest on an attempt being made to draw up the 

 fleece. When he saw that this plan was a failure, he 

 procured a piece of paling about two feet long : and, attaching 

 it by the middle to the end of the rope, he let it down to the 

 nest, and jerked out the young birds, five in number, by 

 pulling the rope sharply when they got on either end of 

 the paling. On being thus thrown out of the nest, they 

 fell down the rocks to the bottom of the cliff, and were all 

 killed but one, which had apparently been a little better 

 fledged than the others, for it fluttered down to the beach, 

 where he secured it. He kept it for some years, and it 

 became quite tame ; but one day it attacked a little boy 

 about four years old, and would have pecked out his 

 eyes had he not protected them with his hands, on which 

 account it was destroyed. The nest used to be near 

 Past Castle every year in those days. In a note dated 



1 Nexo Stat. Ace. of Scot., vol. ii., Berwickshii-e, p. 300. 



