156 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



and in his hour of need he may occasionally 

 be convicted of crimes which are foreign to his 

 nature ; but this rarely happens. On such emer- 

 gencies the ravens almost invariably migrate to the 

 sea-coast, where they subsist on dead fish and 

 Mollusca, to which several species of the Corvi- 

 dce appear to be equally partial, and which induce 

 the carrion and the hooded crows to desert their 

 inland haunts for the shores at low water, the 

 mouths of the tide-rivers, and the muddy creeks 

 of Chichester harbour. 



In their new quarters the ravens now reign 

 unmolested, the nest itself being concealed from 

 ordinary observation among the evergreen boughs 

 near the summit of one of the tallest trees, so as 

 to escape the notice of the wayfarers who traverse 

 Upperton Common, or pass along the high road 

 which here skirts the ivy-covered park wall. 

 Nay, even within the precincts, where these birds 

 and their establishment are now held sacred, 

 those who occasionally visit the spot for the ex- 

 press purpose of " having a look at the ravens," 

 are generally disappointed as they mount the 

 steep hill and approach the clump, at seeing no- 

 thing of either of the birds, and at the apparent 

 desertion of the place : but they are quickly un- 

 deceived. The short and angry barks of the 

 male are first heard as he emerges from the dark 



