RAVENS DRIVEN AWAY 143 



the marshes, the unpoetic glare from a factory 

 furnace showed red through the semi-darkness ; 

 and by the side of this ran another silver line 

 the canal but not so bright as the natural 

 stream. Although it was a tract of flat and 

 unpicturesque country, as seen from below, from 

 my lofty point of view, and with the water 

 shining sufficiently to relieve the monotony, the 

 scene was one that was remarkable enough to be 

 remembered, and suggested many things con- 

 nected with bird-life. 



Not very many years ago the Raven used to 

 breed in our inland counties ; and not far from 

 my home there still stands a tree in which the last 

 pair of these birds built their nest in Middlesex. 

 Owing to game-preserving, these and many more 

 interesting species are now driven away from their 

 former haunts to the more wild and mountainous 

 regions ; but even in such retreats they are still 

 cruelly molested by the agents of professional 

 egg-collectors. Unless something is done, and is 

 done very soon, to protect our rarer breeding birds, 

 many species will be altogether exterminated as 

 far as our British Isles are concerned. The profes- 

 sional egg-collector has much to answer for in this 

 matter of killing off our rarer specimens. I have 

 met with many of them in my rambles in Bird-land ; 



