76 RAVENS NESTING IN CONFINEMENT. 



accustomed to perch on one of the highest boughs, 

 and attack immediately any approaching bird that 

 he considered likely to molest the eggs or young 

 ones. 



In the Sogne Fjord, in Norway, near Gudvangen, 

 I have seen the nest of a raven placed on a small 

 ledge projecting from the face of a precipitous cliff, 

 rising nearly 3,000 feet perpendicularly from the 

 surface of the water. The young birds had been 

 fledged some time, but both old and young remained 

 in the vicinity of the nest. 



On assuming their first plumage, the young 

 ravens are of a uniform dull black, without any of 

 the resplendent steel blue gloss of the old birds ; the 

 gular feathers also have not assumed the peculiar 

 lanceolate form noticeable in the adult specimens. 

 The full plumage, however, is assumed after the first 

 moult, which takes place in the autumn of the same 

 year the young have been hatched. 



The family usually remain together during the 

 summer and early part of the autumn, the young 

 birds leaving their parents on the completion of the 

 first moult. 



While deer-stalking on the Norwegian mountains, 

 I have several times had my sport spoiled by ravens. 

 No wild animal is more wary in its habits than the 

 reindeer, and when a herd is lying down at rest 

 during the middle of the day, the whistle of the 



