536 BRITISH BIRDS. 



small rocks near Dunvegan Head, overlooking the loch. The cliffs them- 

 selves were not more than fifty yards high, although the broken ground 

 sloped considerably from their base to the water's edge. The nest was 

 some twelve feet from the summit, in the least accessible part of the rocks. 

 A little grassy platform was near the nesting-place ; and the nest itself was 

 built under an overhanging ledge, quite invisible from above, and only 

 partially so from below. The site commanded a grand look-out seawards, 

 and was indeed the very place in which one would expect to find a Raven's 

 nest where these arch-robbers could obtain an uninterrupted view of the 

 surrounding district. The nest was a bulky structure, made of a pile of 

 sticks, large and small twigs and branches of the heather bleached with 

 age, and evidently the accumulation of years. On some of the sticks large 

 masses of sheep's wool hung. The lining was of finer twigs, roots, tufts of 

 grass, and a little wool, the whole forming a very rude-looking nest, yet 

 most strongly and compactly built, not in any way wedged amongst the 

 rocks, but simply built upon the smooth ledge, which was devoid of all 

 herbage whatever. The sides of the nest and the rocks were white with 

 the droppings of the birds ; and in the crevices were numerous castings of 

 food refuse." When built in trees, the Raven's nest is a bulky struc- 

 ture, best described as a huge pile of sticks, and added to each year. 

 My friend Harvie-Brown describes a nest of this bird, which was placed in 

 a hole in a cliff about thirty feet from the ground, as a " large structure of 

 sticks, and inside about two fishing-basketsful of sheep's wool." One of 

 the largest trees is selected for the purpose, and one with but few branches, 

 as though the birds were conscious that their safety depended upon the 

 inaccessibility of the site selected. 



The following graphic notes on the storming of a Raven's nest near 

 Earls Colne in Essex have been obligingly communicated by Mr. Edmund 

 Capper : " It was a splendid day in March, warm for the time of year ; 

 and we wandered through the preserves, crossed some fields, and entered 

 the copse in which we understood the Ravens had built their nest. It 

 was just such a spot as one could have fancied a Raven might have selected 

 for its home a well-preserved large copse with densely thick undergrowth, 

 together with little patches of open glade in which were a few tall elms 

 and other trees. On the afternoon of our visit it was intensely silent : 

 the sun was bright in the heavens ; and only the cooing of the Ring-Doves 

 and the whirring of the Pheasants and other game served to give evidence 

 of animal life in the wood. We silently entered, creeping along the glen 

 up into its centre; but so little did we see of the objects of our search 

 that we began to fear that we had missed the right plantation, when all at 

 once we came to a little clearing in the middle of the copse ; and there 

 straight before us, on the top of an immense elm, was the Raven's nest. 

 The hen slipped off the moment we emerged from the undergrowth ; and 



