158 " The Raven Wys!' [Sess. 



which are among the most agile feats of flight I have ever 

 had the good fortune to witness. Hudson has described it 

 so much better than anybody else, and so much better than 

 I can do, that I would fain quote from one of his books. 

 He says — 



" Let the reader imagine a series of invisible wires, stretch- 

 ed wire above wire, at a distance of 30 or 40 yards apart, 

 to a height of 600 or 700 yards from the earth. Let him next 

 imagine an acrobat infinitely more daring, more agile, and 

 graceful in action than any performer he has ever seen — 

 imagine him standing on the highest wire of all, in his black 

 silk tights, against the blue sky, his arms outstretched, then 

 dropping his arms to his side and diving through the air to 

 the next wire, then to the next, and so on successively until 

 he comes to earth. The feat would be similar, only on a 

 larger scale and less beautiful than that of the Eavens 

 I witnessed." 



On this occasion we did not by any means see the feat 

 to perfection — there was no wonderful succession of dives such 

 as Hudson describes. There was probably not enough wind, 

 there was probably no driving motive of anxiety and anger 

 such as we have usually known to prompt it. Here the dive 

 and every other movement was apparently being performed 

 with the greatest unconcern, with something in fact which, 

 so far from savouring of anxiety, struck me as being not 

 unlike lightheartedness. And the tone and range of the 

 Eaven's notes assisted to create the same impression. While 

 I watched this pair the savage resonant bark which may be 

 considered the Eaven's characteristic note was used com- 

 paratively seldom — and bear in mind that both birds inter- 

 changed remarks continuously — or at least in such a modified 

 good-tempered way that it appealed to my unsensitive ears 

 as a note almost entitled to rank as distinct. Then there 

 were strange quacking sounds which reminded me a little 

 of a certain cry of the young of the Great Black-backed Gull, 

 and numerous short liquid notes and gurgles, which all 

 sounded highly expressive of geniality and good-fellowship, 

 and full of meaning for Eavens if not for men. Necromancers 

 of old are said to have credited the Eaven with no less than 

 65 different inflections of his voice, and there are no occa- 



