228 WHERE ROLLS THE OREGON 



so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, 

 that the most daring lads were awed, and acknowl- 

 edged the undertaking to be too hazardous : so 

 the ravens built on, nest upon nest, in perfect 

 security, till the fatal day arrived in which the 

 wood was to be leveled. It was in the month of 

 February, when these birds usually sit. The saw 

 was applied to the butt, the wedges were inserted 

 into the opening, the woods echoed to the heavy 

 blow of the beetle or mall or mallet, the tree 

 nodded to its fall ; but still the dam sat on. At 

 last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from 

 her nest, and, though her parental affection de- 

 served a better fate, was whipped down by the 

 twigs, which brought her dead to the ground." 



One of the most interesting instances of varia- 

 tion of the mother-instinct in the same species of 

 birds, which has ever come under my observa- 

 tion, occurred in the rookeries of the Three-Arch 

 Rocks Reservation off the coast of Oregon. 



We had gone out to the Reservation, as I said 

 in the opening chapter, in order to study and 

 photograph its wild life, and were making our 

 slow way toward the top of the outer rock. Up 

 the sheer south face of the cliff we had climbed, 



