230 Corvidce. 



good old times, that it is almost too bad to affirm that it really 

 was nothing else but a very strange coincidence. 



Roundway Park It is now a long time since the Ravens 

 used to breed annually in the large trees here, but I well 

 recollect hearing in my younger days that they had a nest here 

 every year, and even some time after they had deserted it they 

 returned, on one occasion at least, to their old haunts, but were 

 thought to be so destructive to game, that they were scared 

 away. Now, howeyer, they are never seen there, and I doubt 

 whether they even visit Roundway Downs and Oliver's Camp, 

 where they used to be found passing the day in solitary grandeur, 

 far removed from the hateful presence of man. 



I believe I have now exhausted all the particulars with which 

 I have been furnished about Wiltshire Ravens, past and present, 

 and, thanks to my numerous obliging correspondents, the picture 

 is, I think, tolerably complete. There is yet, however, some 

 negative evidence to add, which will help to fill in the back- 

 ground or any gaps there may be in our landscape ; viz., the 

 testimony of those who have never seen or heard of a Raven in 

 their neighbourhood, and of others who speak of some rare and 

 exceptional appearance of that bird at long intervals of time. 

 Thus the Rev. E. Duke has no recollection of any seen or killed 

 in the neighbourhood of Lake. Mr. W. Wyndham's experience 

 of them is that they have become extremely scarce near Dinton 

 since the gipsies harried the nest on Compton Down, and drove 

 away the old birds some twelve years ago. Lord Heytesbnry 

 (who most kindly instituted inquiries for my benefit), reports 

 that none have been seen in the neighbourhood of Heytesbury, 

 at any rate for many years past. Mr. C. Phipps has never heard 

 of their appearance at Chalcot. Sir C. Hobhouse has never 

 seen one at Monkton Farleigh, nor is there any tradition of their 

 occurrence there. Colonel Wallington knows nothing of them at 

 Keevil, though he had tidings of a pair seen at Steeple Ashton 

 some sixteen years since. The Right Hon. E. P. Bouverie has 

 never seen them at Lavington, nor indeed anywhere in Wiltshire. 

 The Rev. C. Soames says that, so far as he knows, they have 



