268 THE RAVEN. 



and as they approached the eastern hill, which forms 

 one side of this valley, I could hear their hoarse 

 and hollow croaking long before I could see the 

 birds themselves. 



How different are the habits of the rooks, with 

 regard to their place of incubation ! You may 

 plunder their nest annually, and annually they will 

 return to it, and perform their incubation in it. So 

 will the starling and the jackdaw. But the carrion 

 crow abandons her nest for ever, after the breeding 

 season ; no matter whether it has been plundered 

 or not. It may here be remarked, that the rook, the 

 starling, and the jackdaw, are always gregarious ; 

 the raven and the carrion crow solitary birds most 

 parts of the year. 



Some few years after the ravens had been plun- 

 dered by the cobbler, either the same couple, or a 

 stranger pair, built their nest in an oak of moderate 

 size, within a few yards of an ornamented sheet of 

 water, and about two miles distant from the wood 

 to which they had resorted in better times. The 

 gentleman's gamekeeper, like all others of that san- 

 guinary set, was on the look-out ; and on seeing the 

 nest, he fancied that he had discovered a den of 

 thieves, who had settled there to pilfer poultry, and 

 to worry his master's hares and pheasants by the 

 dozen. The poor female was shot down dead to the 

 ground; but, fortunately, the male escaped assas- 

 sination. He tarried for a day or two in the envi- 

 rons, and then deserted us for ever. From the day 

 of his disappearance, I have never seen or heard a 

 wild raven in this part of the country ; and times 



