Birds. 9669 



we had already done enough to diminish the race by taking the 

 eggs, our charge was saved, and the birds spared, haply to breed 

 again. 



Raveii. — As a matter of course, this bird being an early breeder, 

 often hatching in March, we were too late to obtain any eggs ; we 

 could, therefore, only content ourselves with looking out for the birds, 

 and endeavour to obtain all the information we could respecting their 

 haunts and habits. On one occasion only did I see a raven, when the 

 more practiced eye of a fisherman, who was rowing me, descried it at 

 a distance, and directed my attention. The next evening we were 

 sitting upon an old boat drawn up on the beach, and, with a laudable 

 thirst for knowledge, were conversing witli a httle knot of fishermen 

 while we smoked the " calumet of peace" : a coast-guardsman joined 

 the group, and the conversation, as usual, turning upon birds and 

 shooting, the last C07ner told us that three weeks previously, towards 

 the end of April, he was on duty on the cliffs at a very early hour in 

 the morning, and when passing over Swyre, he saw on the edge of the 

 cliff a dark-looking mass which considerably puzzled him. In the 

 cold gray light before sunrise it was difficult to distinguish even 

 common objects at a little distance, and so, approaching hastily, he 

 made two sharp cuts with a heavy stick which he carried, and, as 

 much to his own surprise as to theirs, no doubt, he sent four young 

 ravens tumbling over the cliff to the beach below: being just old 

 enough to fly, they had probably left the nest to roost upon the edge 

 of the cliff, and were either asleep or the heavy dew upon their wings 

 had rendered them disinclined to move : some iew hours later these 

 birds were picked up on the beach by a fisherman, and went the way 

 of all flesh which falls into the hands of a Dorset fisherman, namely, 

 into his lobster-pots, by way of bait. 



Jackdaw. — One of the commonest birds along this coast is the 

 jackdaw, and there is scarcely a cliff in which several pairs may not 

 be seen going in and out of the numerous fissures and crevices, which 

 afford them convenient nesting-places. The birds are of no value, 

 and their eggs, bein"^ common enough, are little sought after; hence 

 this species enjoys comparative immunity, while the nests of gulls and 

 guillemots, perhaps within a \ew feet of them, are robbed without 

 much compassion. During the time the young are in the nest the 

 parent jackdaws are unceasing in their labour of finding and carrying 

 food to them, and it is astonishing what a quantity a single bird will 

 find in a very few minutes. One day we sat down on the top of 

 South Cliff", near Worbarrow, and watched the old jackdaws going in 



