IN QUEST OF RAVENS 59 



when I met a young man carrying a gun, 

 and proposed to him the inevitable inquiry. 

 Oh yes, he saw ravens pretty often ; he had 

 seen some within a month, he thought. They 

 never flew over without calling out ; which, 

 as I interpreted it, might mean only that 

 when they kept silence he failed to notice 

 them. Here was more proof of the birds' 

 presence ; but the words " within a month " 

 kept down any tendency to undue exhilara- 

 tion. 



That noon, at the hotel, I had an interest- 

 ing ornithological conference with two resi- 

 dents of the town, both of them already well 

 informed as to the nature of my crotchet. 

 For a beginning, one of them told me that 

 he had seen a raven that very forenoon, 

 and as usual it was "flying over." Then 

 the talk somehow turned upon the whippoor- 

 will, of which I had thus far found no trace 

 hereabout, and they agreed that it was not 

 uncommon at certain seasons. It was often 

 called the bullbat, they added. They had 

 seen it, both of them, I think, flying far up 

 in the air in broad daylight, and crying 

 whippoorwill 1 " Good ! " said I. " I would 

 rather have seen that than all the ravens in 



