Powerful Birds 221 



overhead, the cunate shape of the tail (in the possession of 

 which the Raven differs from both Rooks and Crows) is 

 distinctly visible ; and occasionally, as the light happened to 

 strike it, I have seen the sheen on the neck, and throat, of 

 an old bird, at quite a distance. The fine pendent throat 

 feathers, forming a sort of beard, are often very visible, 

 under those circumstances, particularly when the birds are 

 croaking. The male can always be distinguished from his 

 partner, when upon the wing, by his superior size, some- 

 times appearing to be quite a third larger than she is. This 

 difference may probably increase with age, for an adult 

 often appears to be almost as large again as a young bird, 1 

 even in winter. The bill, in adults, is also much larger 

 than in immature individuals, and in very old birds the 

 upper mandible sometimes overlaps the lower one (the 

 cu/meri) to the extent of quite a quarter of an inch, forming 

 a formidable hook. This is a feature I do not remember 

 to have seen illustrated in any of our popular works on 

 ornithology ; and it is, therefore, apt to strike a young 

 person as something unusual should he chance to handle an 

 adult bird. In some of the birds nailed to the keeper's 

 rails round Llanuwchllyn, this feature was very pronounced. 

 On some of these rails I have occasionally been sorry to see 

 half a dozen, or more, Ravens, all adults, hanging uselessly 

 rotting together. 



Caught in a steel trap, a Raven will, in the majority of 

 cases, pu^l itself free and escape, leaving a toe, or a foot, in 

 the gin : for which reason the traps are generally set near 

 water, so that, falling into it, the victims may drown them- 

 selves. Where the trap is on dry land, the marks of the 

 bird's bill, where it has been stuck into the peat, in order to 

 assist the pull necessary to break the sinews in the captured 

 leg, may frequently be seen ; no attempt being apparently 

 made to cut the tendons with the beak. Old Ravens, how- 

 ever, soon become very wary of a trap, and are not easily 



1 One adult male I examined weighed 3^ Ibs. ; a young one of the previous 

 year, killed in February, less than 2 Ibs. ; an old crow (a male), on the same 

 date, scaling slightly over i| Ibs. ; an adult female Raven, in December, 

 weighed 2^ Ibs. 



