AND NEIGHBOURHOOD. 213 



of danger. We have heard of Ravens vigorously 

 attacking persons attempting to harm their nests, 

 but have never witnessed anything of the sort, our 

 experience being to the effect that, during the siege, 

 the parent birds usually soar high in air over the 

 nest, uttering, besides their usual croak of alarm or 

 anger, a curious sound, like the noise made by drawing 

 a tightly fitting cork from a bottle, occasionally 

 turning complete somersaults in the air, and making 

 ferocious stoops in the direction of the invader, but 

 always keeping well out of gunshot-range. For some 

 time after the young Ravens leave the nest they roam 

 in company with their parents, but soon separate and 

 start off singly or in couples on marauding expeditions 

 on their own account. We often noticed in the 

 highlands of Scotland that the Ravens appeared in 

 force as soon as we began to kill the deer at the 

 beginning of August, and although in some years 

 none of these birds had nested or been observed 

 before the time just mentioned in the particular 

 locality of which we are treating, thenceforward a 

 day rarely passed without our seeing several Ravens 

 during our sojourns at the forest lodge, which gene- 

 rally lasted till the middle of October. The carcasses 

 of the deer killed w^ere hardly ever attacked by the 

 Ravens for the first twenty-four hours, even in in- 

 stances in which we took no precautions to scare 

 them, but if through any mischance we were pre- 

 vented from bringing in the slain till a second day, 

 we almost invariably found that the eyes and often 

 a considerable portion of the haunches had been 

 devoured. 



The Raven is truly omnivorous ; no weakly or 

 wounded beast or bird is safe from his attacks. For 



