THE LAST 
RAVENS. 
How the Avington fledglings were killed by their jealous parents. 
By W. H. Hupson, AuTHOoR oF “ BritisH Brrps.” 
Ae many of us who take delight in birds, the raven, whether we love it or no, 
is the most fascinating of feathered beings. Its powerful character impresses the 
imagination. Certamly the raven has an intelligence almost uncanny in a bird; and a 
savage spirit too, and power; and a deep human-like voice; and a very long hfe. These 
qualities affect the mind and have been the cause of the raven’s strange reputation in 
former ages—the idea that 
he was something more than 
a bird; a messenger of doom, 
an evil spirit, or the spirit 
of some great dead man 
revisiting the scenes of his 
earthly career. 
Common all over the 
country down to the early 
years of the ninteenth cen- 
tury, he has now been 
pretty well exterminated as 
an inland bird. On the 
ion-bound coasts where his 
eggs are comparatively safe, 
and in a few wild moun- 
tainous spots in the interior, 
he still exists. But it does 
not seem long since he was 
lost, for his memory still 
lives: “raven trees” are 
common all over the country 
—trees in which the vanished 
birds built them big nests 
and reared their young each 
year. Tales of “last ravens” 
Photo by W. P. Dando, F.Z.S., Regents Park, N.W. 
A HAMPSHIRE RAVEN. 
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