16 Animal Life 
injured and sent away to the Hospital at 
Winchester. For twelve long months he 
was kept there, on his back, and when 
sent home was told that he would never 
be fit to do any out-door work, although 
he might perhaps live for some years. 
They were wrong since he did get perfectly 
well, and fifty years or more after the 
accident I have seen him working like 
a young man, mowing, digging and wood- 
cutting. 
Two or three years before this 
terrible fall put an end to his tree- 
climbing exploits, a member of the Ducal 
family who were then the owners of 
Avington thought it would be interesting 
to have some tame ravens as pets, and the 
young champion climber was instructed 
to take the fledglings from the nest in 
the park. 
When he got up to the nest he 
was surprised to find six birds, half- 
fledged; and he took them all, and all 
were safely reared at the house. These 
birds when grown remained peifectly 
tame although they were never pinioned ; 
Photo by Scholastic Photo Co., Parson's Green. _ they spent most of their time flying about 
ST AVENS AL HOME: the park and outside of it, but invariably 
As an inland bird the Raven has been nearly exterminated; but he 
still exists on mountainous spots. came to the house to be fed and to roost. 
As time went on it was observed that the old birds became more and more 
jealous of their presence in their territory and from day to day they persecuted them 
with increasing fury. The young, accustomed to be fed at the house, refused to leave 
the place, as the young reared annually in the nest are invariably compelled to do; 
and the result was that one by one they were killed by their savage parents. My 
informant actually witnessed the killing of one of them: the young bird tried to 
escape by flying to the house but was buffeted with such fury that in the end it 
was borne down to the earth in the park and was then quickly done to death by 
the savage blows of the two powerful beaks. 
There are other birds just as intolerant of the presence of their fully-grown 
young as the raven. This is the case with our robin redbreast, but in the case of 
this species it is the cock bird only that fights and the fight is thus a more equal 
one. The young bird sometimes conquers the old one. In the raven, the mother 
‘bird hates her children as much as the father does, and as they fight im company, 
playing into each other’s hands, and take their young one by one, they are invariably 
the victors. 
a 
