60 THE BIRDS OF CUMBERLAND. 



In 1784, Clarke wrote, " Ravens we have few, 

 owing, I suppose, to the reward given for kilHng 

 them. They build their nests in rocks, and lay four 

 eggs." (Survey of the Lakes, AjDp., p. 190.) 



Dr. Heysham remarks — " In Cumberland, the 

 Raven, for the most part, breeds in rocks, and 

 begins to build its nest in February ; though it has 

 generally five young [in Skye, four is the usual 

 number], never more than a pair are seen in the 

 same neighbourhood. . . . Wherever there is at 

 present a Raven's nest, there has always been one 

 in the same place, or in the neighbourhood, for time 

 immemorial." 



Dr. Parker remarks that, in 1879, he visited a 

 Raven's nest near Keswick, which was not more 

 than twenty feet from the ground, and within five 

 hundred yards of a farmhouse. 



Early in the present century the Raven not 

 unfrequently nested in tall trees in low-lying dis- 

 tricts, and even now it is not entirely restricted 

 to the lake district. We possess the skins of a 

 pair of Ravens poisoned at the nest some years 

 since near Alston, and a pair still nest on the 

 Crossfell range. 



In 1884, a pair of Ravens nested at St. Bees 

 Head, and a second pair on a cliff near Tyndal 

 Tarn ; but in each case one of the old birds and a 

 young one were shot, and the localities were not 

 occupied during the present spring. 



Edmund Sandford (1675) asserts that Ravenglass 

 was " so called of a broode (airye) of Rauns there, 

 and I have seen a white Raun ther much made on 



