WHERE RAVENS REIGN 253 



more pugnacious. In this valley it is a common experi 

 ence to see the ravens mobbing the buzzards if they 

 approach at all near to the nesting tree ; and while so 

 engaged they prove the supreme control of their flight. 

 The crow tribe is in some regards much the best of all in 

 flight. The birds can travel great distances in the straight- 

 est line, as our proverbs recognise ; and one of the 

 stranger sights is the evening s collection of great colonies 

 to favourite roosting woods ; but it is when they decide 

 to attack that they are incomparable. I saw, also in the 

 West, a smallholder s sheepdog driving in some pigs, 

 who much resented the attention. They turned savagely, 

 and bit at the young collie, who laughed in their face, so 

 lightly, so quickly, could he leap and turn that he could 

 assault the unfortunate pig at any point and any moment 

 he wished, without the suspicion of a fear of reprisals. 

 The ravens are not less superior to the buzzards. They 

 have the tumbling trick as strongly as Sir Andrew Ague- 

 cheek himself. A bat can scarcely turn so quickly. The 

 buzzards, with a fine philosophy, being wiser than the 

 pigs, make off with what dignity they can muster ; the 

 raven is too good for them altogether. 



Do ravens and buzzards nest side by side in other 

 groves in other valleys, where history and natural history 

 so sweetly combine into a most English picture ? Per 

 haps they do, for both sorts of bird continue to increase. 

 They nest and breed and live long lives. But such a 

 place is worth possession by the nation, so that the asso 

 ciation may be ensured &quot; in perpetuity,&quot; if such may be. 

 We need not wait for danger to arrive ; and it must be 

 confessed that danger is remote : the place and its neigh 

 bourhood remain unspotted from the world, in spite of 

 the fond enmity of the innumerable friends of Devon. 



