8o MOUNTAIN AND MOORLAND 



mistaking the passion of the lusty Blackcocks. We 

 were rather excited ourselves, for it was a wonderful 

 spectacle the sunrise, the growing light on the hills, 

 the green sward, the transfiguration of the male birds, 

 the fighting and the bluffing, the display and the 

 dancing; but all of a sudden the curtain fell. In our 

 preoccupation, anxious to see a little more clearly 

 into the mysteries, we raised our heads a little above 

 the level of the wall of the sheepfold. There was a 

 clapping of wings and a gust in the Alder-trees, and 

 all was over. The stage was there, but the actors 

 were gone. 



Once common in Britain, the Raven (Corvus corax) 

 is now very rare. But there are still some secluded 

 cliffs, especially near the coast, where it survives 

 persecution. It can be known at once from the Rook 

 or the Carrion Crow by its large size, the male being 

 an inch over two feet long. In some parts of the 

 Northern Hemisphere Ravens make their nests to- 

 gether and unite in flocks when there is some unusual 

 abundance of animal food, and there are a few com- 

 munal roosting-places in this country. On the whole, 

 however, one is very lucky to see a pair! 



We know one sombre Highland glen where the 

 mountains come down to the sea, and on a precipice 

 half-way up the heights on one side there is a roosting- 

 place where a number of Ravens spend the night. 

 We have tried to get near it, but the ascent proved 

 beyond our powers. We wished to see one of the 

 shelves which are said to be littered with interesting 

 castings of undigested food bones, hair, feathers, 

 shells, and what not and we wished some night to 

 hear in the silence of the hills how the ravens croon 



