146 THE RAVEN 



It is a curious coincidence that, in the very same 

 year 1903, in which I wrote the first draft of this 

 account, Mr W. H. Hudson, the noted naturalist of 

 the Pampas, when wandering, as is his wont, through 

 out-of-the-way parts of the country, observing birds, 

 should have happened to be at Sixpenny Hanley, 

 on the edge of the county of Dorset, where he 

 had never been before, and should have asked, as 

 is also his wont, a countryman in the fields, about 

 the birds of the neighbourhood, and, in particular, 

 whether a raven was ever heard or seen there. 

 " Not often now," replied the labourer, " but look 

 over yonder" and he pointed to Badbury Rings, 

 many miles away "a pair of ravens did always 

 used to bide and build there ; " and he went on 

 to tell him how, many years ago, when quite a 

 young man, he had determined, one day, to go 

 over and try to get the young ravens. He had 

 only a bit of bread and cheese in his pocket, and 

 when he got there, very tired, he found that the tree 

 containing the nest was " stuck all over with big 

 spikes, which made it impossible for him to climb it," 

 and he had returned, disappointed and exhausted. 

 The "big spikes" which perhaps conjoined with 

 his own exhaustion and the terrors of the raven's 

 croaking had made it impossible for him to climb 



