148 THE HOME OF A NATURALIST. 



kinds of egj^s, as those of all the gulls and guillemots, 

 were excellent eating when fresh and boiled hard. 

 One of our adventures very nearly proved tragic. 



We had often tried — but had always failed — to 

 obtain any ravens' eggs for our collection. We were 

 anxious to procure specimens, and determined that 

 somehow or other we should. Now, be it known to 

 those who are not acquainted with the character and 

 habits of the " bird of ill omen," that he is one of the 

 most sagacious and cunning of the feathered tribe. 

 He builds his nest high up in the most inaccessible 

 cliffs, so that it is almost always impossible to reach 

 it except with the help of a rope ; and even with such 

 assistance, it is no easy task. We knew of a raven's 

 nest about fifty feet from the top of The Keen, a very 

 steep and bare precipice of four hundred feet, which 

 there was no possibility of scaling in the usual way. 

 Above the nest, the clifif was partly overhanging ; and 

 beneath and on both sides, except the spot chosen for 

 the nest on a solitary shelf, it was smooth and steep 

 as a wall. For many years, the same pair of ravens, 

 safe and unmolested, had occupied this spot and reared 

 their broods ; but with the pertinacious ardour of boy- 

 hood, we were resolved they should no longer find that 

 their eyrie was impregnable, and we laid our plans 

 accordingly. It was necessary to have recourse to a 

 rope, that one of us might be lowered down from the 

 brow of the cliff; also a pulley, in the form which 

 sailors call a "block," was required, for one of us 

 would of course have been unable to haul up the other 



