1908-1909.] " The Raven Wys" 161 



radius of twenty miles. If this flock was comprised of resident 

 birds, it must be a gathering of the species from the whole 

 countryside — a gathering, mark you, of a bird characterised by 

 a score of authors as the feathered embodiment of solitariness 

 and exclusiveness, to indulge in what I believe to have been 

 purely social intercourse. It occurred to us that they might 

 be migrant Eavens, of which this country seems to get a small 

 and variable quantity, but this idea was finally dispelled some 

 weeks later, when two ornithological friends came to me and 

 described having observed a precisely similar gathering at a 

 place twenty miles further north on the 23rd March, exactly 

 a fortnight after our own expedition, and a date when most 

 Eavens would be busy incubating. They had observed the 

 phenomena under much more favourable weather circum- 

 stances, and had been able to see, after watching the birds 

 for upwards of an hour, what we had not — the dispersal of 

 the company. And this is the interesting point : they had 

 dispersed in twos — first one pair left the convivial crowd, 

 and then at a short interval a second, and then a third, each 

 heading away in a different direction, until the last farewell 

 had been croaked across the hills and silence reigned supreme 

 in the glen. This observation, we thought, settled the matter. 

 It was a gathering of resident birds — a gregarious display, 

 which showed that the Eaven was a true Crow after all, and 

 that he possessed a partiality for the society of his fellows, — 

 so strong indeed that birds, it would seem, even left their nests 

 and their eggs to participate, — differing perhaps hardly a whit 

 from that of his better-known and truly republican congener, 

 the Eook. It surely showed also that when the Eaven did elect 

 to consort in company, it was not because of the attractions of 

 some delectable food-supply, it was no case of the " carcase," 

 which will often bring the most exclusive of fowls together, 

 it was simply to enjoy the sweets of congenial companionship 

 and a very fine and wholesome game in the air. 



It seemed to be just this fine game that was entertaining 

 us now, and having arrived at this conclusion we had no 

 further hope of finding the nest occupied, although C, ever 

 loyal to his favourite birds, advanced the specious argument 

 that the Eavens might be only pretending to play while they 

 were really and at bottom considerably concerned. When we 



