RETREAT DISCOVERED. 157 



boughs ; then if the young have been hatched 

 he is soon joined by the female, and both con- 

 tinue to soar round the heads of the strangers, 

 gradually increasing their distance until they 

 reach a considerable height, and occasionally 

 varying their usual hoarse cry with the singular 

 note to which I have already alluded. Their re- 

 treat is therefore, as I have said, secure from 

 ordinary observation ; but what nest can escape 

 the scrutiny of an Argus-eyed school-boy, espe- 

 cially if his cranium should present a development 

 of the true ornithological bump ? Soon after the 

 ravens had taken up their quarters here, a truant 

 youth, wandering over the Common, with his 

 empty satchel on his shoulder, caught a glimpse 

 of one of the old birds, marked him down into the 

 clump, and having satisfied himself by an exceed- 

 ingly rapid process of reasoning that its abode 

 was there, and that the discovery and appropria- 

 tion of its contents would repay him for the perils 

 of the adventure, he scaled the wall, climbed the 

 tree, robbed the nest, deposited four "squabs" 

 all that it contained in his book-bag, and 

 escaped undiscovered with his prize. 



Imagine my feelings, when, on visiting the fir 

 grove a few days after this occurrence, I could 

 find no trace of either of the old ravens ! At first 

 curiosity was succeeded by suspicion, then sus- 



