RAVENS 97 



a hill -side wood which was at different times the 

 nursery of Raven, Kite, and Buzzard. 



When in rocks the nest generally reposing in 

 the upper part of the cliff, sometimes, indeed, only 

 a few feet down the steep, and perhaps by pre- 

 ference in a quite bare precipice, as opposed to a 

 wooded one (which the Buzzard likes so well), 

 and usually on a ledge devoid of herbage the 

 site select is either a well-overhung ledge or plat- 

 form, a big crevice, or cavernous recess (I once 

 saw a nest in an ivied cliff in a hole only just large 

 enough to contain it), the flat space behind some 

 tree springing from the crags, or, sometimes, a 

 mere projecting snag of rock. This is occasionally 

 so insignificant that the wonder is that the builders 

 can make a start on it at all, or that so bulky a 

 concern can, from its own weight, lodge there a 

 moment. Conceive also the shaking it must 

 receive every time its owners alight upon it, and 

 especially when the nestlings, waxen large and 

 lusty, indulge in much movement. A slight touch 

 from the fingers on its outermost edge, as one 

 hangs by the knee-joints head downwards from 

 a sapling oak just above it, sends a nest in such a 

 perilous position hurtling, eggs and all, to the 

 valley below. The nest of which I am thinking 

 was over a yard high, and its foundations were of 

 the rottenest, and white with age. Since that 

 mischance, it is interesting to note that the Ravens 

 have never yet tried another nest there. The cliff 



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