i6o " The Raven IVys." [Sess. 



had examined the cliff we had thought likely, drawn a com- 

 plete blank, and were now keeping a sharp look-out for any 

 suitable rock or birds that would provide the forlorn clue. 

 For a time the long rippling cries of Curlews were the only 

 bird-sounds that reached us, and then, just after a hurricane 

 of sleet had whirled past us and cleared away across the moor, 

 we caught sight of a group of black birds rising and falling 

 about half a mile to our right and, what is more to the point, 

 to our leeward. At first we thought it might be a company 

 of Jackdaws. In former years large numbers of these birds 

 had been wont to come up among the hills to breed, but we 

 had an idea that it was still too early for their appearance, 

 and as a matter of fact we had not seen a single Jackdaw 

 previous to this all day. Then the wind moderated, and quite 

 distinctly we heard a Eaven croak. We immediately sought 

 out the nearest eminence and whipped out our glasses. There 

 was no doubt of it, we had chanced on a flock of Eavens ! Of 

 all the multitude of days that ever preserved their good luck 

 until the eleventh hour this was surely the greatest. And 

 what was more incredible still, when we came to regard them 

 more intently they were disporting themselves just as we had 

 seen odd pairs of Eavens doing before and long after the 

 nesting-season. They were even carrying the play further ; 

 we could see, in spite of the distance and the poor light, birds 

 bearing sticks or heather-bents in their bills ; we could see a 

 bird drop one and then dive after it, make a movement as if 

 it had caught it in the air, and then swing upwards pursued 

 by two or three of its fellows who a moment before had made 

 wild dashes to intercept it. There was also a great deal of 

 other circling and tumbling and sudden dives, for which we 

 could not perceive the reason — the birds probably played 

 with smaller articles than sticks, which were invisible at our 

 distance. The whole business left the impression of birds 

 gathered for play and for nothing else. But the most won- 

 derful thing about it was the number of birds — there certainly 

 were more than twelve, and there might have been twenty. 

 We were sufficiently well acquainted with the hill district 

 round about to say very positively that there were not more 

 than six breeding pairs of Eavens within a radius of ten miles, 

 and there probably was not more than a dozen pairs within a 



