RAVENS. 183 



is eternal warfare ; and no wonder, for they will venture to 

 attack the very nests, and carry off the unfledged Rooks as food 

 for their own young : and those who are partial to rookeries 

 have found it necessary to shoot the Ravens and destroy 

 their nests, as the only effectual means of keeping peace 

 amongst the Rooks. But notwithstanding the Raven's 

 superior courage, he does not always succeed ; for not only 

 Rooks, but Carrion Crows will sometimes put them to flight. 

 A person once heard an uncommon chattering and clamour 

 proceeding from a tree, and going near to learn the cause, 

 observed no less than three Ravens successively issue from 

 the tree, followed by a single crow, which pursued and drove 

 them fairly off. 



Generally speaking, they are solitary birds, the same pair 

 only remaining together; but occasionally this is not the 

 case, particularly in the northern parts of Europe, where 

 they are more abundant, and are often seen in greater num- 

 bers. Thus, in the month of June, 1832, a party leaving 

 the Bay of Kirkwall, in the Orkney Islands, north of Scot- 

 land, counted twenty-four of these birds passing over their 

 heads flying towards the north ; they were very near to each 

 other, and followed in the same way as Rooks usually do in 

 returning to their rookery; and about a week afterwards 

 twenty-six were observed by the same party flying to the 

 southward. There is reason, however, to believe, that these 

 assemblages of Ravens ought not to be admitted as proofs of 

 their being, under any circumstances or seasons of the year, 

 really gregarious ; that is, naturally disposed to associate in 

 flocks, but is rather to be attributed to the attraction of dis- 

 tant food, which, if beyond the reach of vision, they can 

 by some unknown faculty discover at great distances. It 

 can scarcely be by scent, for in those northern regions, when 

 all is calm and quiet, and the severity of frost rapidly de- 

 stroys all the effluvia of dead matter, still troops of Ravens, 

 within an incredibly short time after the slaughter of an 

 animal, will be seen advancing from all points to this common 

 centre of attraction, like the Vultures of which we have before 

 spoken, though at the time not a single bird was to be seen 



