NOTES FROM YORKSHIRE. 173 



if the county can boast of possessing more than a single pair 

 nesting annually. 



On March 29th I visited a Raven's nest. This species has of 

 late years become very scarce in the county, though we possess 

 such an extended fell range in the north-west and suitable cliffs 

 on our sea-board, both of which — and our larger woods, too — 

 once harboured Ravens in some numbers ; but now only two or 

 three pairs are known to me as nesting, and I much fear that a 

 very few years will suffice to see the Raven's name erased from 

 the list of resident Yorkshire birds. The nest contained five eggs, 

 and was placed in an angle of a cliff, some twenty feet from the 

 top, and with a sheer drop of about two hundred feet below. 

 The date was late for this species to be commencing incubation ; 

 but the pair had set their hearts upon a site on the other side of 

 the fell, from which they were driven at the last moment by a 

 pair of Peregrines, which appeared upon the scene and pitched 

 upon the nest as suitable for their own purposes. The young 

 were hatched on April 11th. 



On April 14th I again visited the Ravens' locality, in response 

 to a missive from my friend, informing me that the Peregrine 

 was sitting, and the pair were playing " old gooseberry" with his 

 Grouse, and must be destroyed, and I might have the eggs. I did 

 all in my power to have the old bird spared, but it was of no 

 avail ; Grouse were almost the only birds at hand, and my friend 

 could not afford the quantum requisite to feed so hungry a family. 

 Accompanied by my friend and his keeper I set out for the nest, 

 to which it was a stiff climb. On reaching the brow of the fell, 

 the male commenced to utter a plaintive cry, evidently from a 

 very considerable height, for although we could hear him most 

 distinctly, yet we entirely failed to distinguish his form. When 

 we had arrived immediately above the nest, the keeper gave a 

 loud whistle, which caused the old bird to leave the nest with 

 a deep downward dive, when she received the contents of both 

 barrels, and was killed. She was a grand old bird, weighing 

 thirty-three ounces, and measuring forty-four inches across the 

 wings. The nest was placed on, or rather occupied, the top of 

 a small column of rock, which was stuck, as it were, on to the 

 smooth face of the cliff, whose slope had a considerable inward 

 tendency, rendering it necessary to put one's head and shoulders 

 uncomfortably far over the brink to obtain a glimpse of the nest, 



