THE HAVEN. 77 



come up in her wake, one ascends, the other glides beneath, me- 

 nacing her and attempting to peck her. Wliile she regards the 

 one belo\v, that above plunges toward her; but perceiving that she 

 is ready to meet him, he reascends a few feet, the other in the 

 mean time threatening vengeance below. I never observed, how- 

 ever, that they actually came in contact with the object of their 

 pursuit, which seemed to regard them as more disagreeable than 

 dangerous, and appeared to hurry on, merely to avoid being pes- 

 tered by them." 



GILBERT WHITE, we remember, speaks of " a very exact ob- 

 server," who " has often remarked that a pair of Havens nestling 

 in the rock of Gibraltar, would suffer no Vulture nor Eagle to rest 

 near their station, but would drive them from the hill with an 

 amazing fury." This, however', was during the period of parental 

 care and solicitude, when the weakest and naturally most timid 

 of creatures become bold and pugnacious. This author relates 

 an interesting anecdote, which may serve in some measure to re- 

 lieve the dark tints which are necessarily used in depicting the 

 character of this bird : 



" In the centre of the grove there stood an oak, which, though 

 shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence 

 about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of Havens had fixed 

 their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was 

 distinguished by the title of the Raven Tree. Many were the 

 attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry : the 

 difficulty whetted their inclination, and each was ambitious of 

 surmounting the arduous task. But when they arrived at the 

 swelling, it jutted out so in their way, and was so far beyond 

 their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknow- 

 ledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the Ravens built 

 on, nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived 

 in which the wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of 

 February, when those birds usually sit. The saw was applied to 

 the butt, the wedges were inserted into the opening, the woods 

 echoed to the heavy blows of the beetle, or mallet, the tree nodded 

 to its fall ; but still the dam sat on. At last, when it gave way, 

 the bird was flung from her nest ; and, though her parental affec- 

 tion deserved a better fate, was whipped down by the twigs, which 

 brought her dead to the ground." 



KNOX, in his Ornithological Rambles in Sussex, gives a long 

 and most interesting account of a pair of Ravens, whose motions 

 and operations he seems to have watched very narrowly. He 

 says, speaking of Petworth Park, after describing- the untimely 

 fate of one pair of birds which had built in that locality, and 

 which were destroyed by an ignorant keeper : " Years passed 

 away, and the Raven continued unknown in this part of West 



