102 OUR BIRD ALLIES. 
keepers as yet were not, and farmers, like most of 
their fellow-men, found vent for their slaughterous 
instinct in warring with human foes rather than with 
creatures standing lower in the scale. Each succeed- 
ing year, however, drives the bird farther and still far- 
ther afield. Man and he cannot live in peace together, 
and man, being the stronger, drives the raven again 
and yet again from his favoured haunts. And, before 
many years have passed away, the last raven will in 
all probability have been driven for ever from our 
shores. 
There is some reason, no doubt, for the feeling 
against him. It is true that at times he will make a 
raid upon the poultry-yard, and incense the proprietor 
thereof by carrying off a duck or a chicken. True, 
that he will anger the gamekeeper by poaching upon 
his preserves. ‘True, again, that in the course of his 
morning’s flight he may espy from afar a weakly 
lamb, and, anticipating nature, may accelerate its 
latter end by the judicious use of his powerful bill. 
But even his greatest detractors cannot assert that 
such proceedings form part of his daily routine, and, 
when they do occur, his victims must be considered 
as the commission paid him in return for his ser- 
vices. 
Carrion is by far the most favourite article of food 
with the raven, whose powerful wings enable him to 
survey an immense track of land in a comparatively 
short space of time, while his keen sight detects the 
presence of a dead sheep or lamb at a considerable 
distance. Should he fail to make such a discovery, 
