256 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



fascinating of feathered beings. Its powerful character 

 impresses the imagination. Certainly it has an in- 

 telligence almost uncanny in a bird ; a savage spirit 

 too, and power ; a deep human-like voice ; and a very 

 long life. These qualities affect the mind and have 

 been the cause of the raven's strange reputation in 

 former ages — the idea that he was something more 

 than a bird, a messenger of doom, an evil spirit, or the 

 spirit of some great dead man revisiting the scenes of 

 his earthly career. 



Common all over the country down to the early years 

 of the nineteenth century, he has now been pretty well 

 exterminated as an inland bird. On the iron-bound 

 coasts in a few spots where his eggs are comparatively 

 safe, and in a few wild mountainous districts in the 

 interior, he still exists. But it does not seem long since 

 he was lost, for his memory still lives : " raven trees " 

 are common all over the country — trees in which 

 the vanished birds built their big nests and reared their 

 young each year. Tales of " last ravens " are also told 

 in numberless places all over the country. Every one 

 who knows his " Selborne " will remember the pathetic 

 history of the last ravens in his neighbourhood 

 told by Gilbert White. That is a long time back, 

 and it is known that ravens continued to breed in Hamp- 

 shire for over a century after White's death. I am here 

 speaking of the inland-breeding birds ; for up till now 

 one pair of ravens still breed on the Isle of Wight 

 cliffs. The last pair of birds that bred inland, on trees, 

 were the Avington ravens. How long they inhabited 



