RETREAT DISCOVERED. 157 



he is soon joined by the female, and both con- 

 tinue to soar round the heads of the strangers, 

 gradually increasing their distance until they 

 reach a considerable height, and occasionally 

 varying their usual hoarse cry with the singular 

 note to which I have already alluded. Their re- 

 treat is therefore, as I have said, secure from 

 ordinary observation ; but what nest can escape 

 the scrutiny of an Argus-eyed school-boy, espe- 

 cially if his cranium should present a development 

 of the true ornithological bump ? Soon after the 

 ravens had taken up their quarters here, a truant 

 youth, wandering over the Common, with his 

 empty satchel on his shoulder, caught a glimpse 

 of one of the old birds, marked it down into the 

 clump, and having satisfied himself by an exceed- 

 ingly rapid process of reasoning that its abode 

 was there, and that the discovery and appropria- 

 tion of the contents would repay him for the perils 

 of the adventure, he scaled the wall, climbed the 

 tree, robbed the nest, deposited four " squabs " 

 all that it contained in his book-bag, and 

 escaped undiscovered with his prize. 



Imagine my feelings, when, on visiting the fir 

 grove a few days after this occurrence, I could find 

 no trace of either of the old ravens ! At first cu- 

 riosity was succeeded by suspicion, then suspicion 

 by anxiety, and at last anxiety by conviction 



