CORVID^. y« 



birds is made known by their hoarse croak, which sounds like a very 

 guttural " pork," which they rarely fail to emit as they are on wing on 

 one of their aerial journeys. We noticed on Lundy a daily encounter 

 between a pair of Kavens and a pair of Peregrines, and one morning 

 a very fine Eaven was picked up lying dead on the " sidlings," with 

 no visible mark of injury upon him. The verdict we pronounced 

 at the time was that he had probably been choked when engaged in 

 resisting the attack of the Falcons. A tame Raven we had once was a 

 verj- amusing and also a rather formidable pet. He was permitted to be 

 at large, and delighted to frighten and annoy every creature he found he 

 could alarm. He would lie perdu, and cunningly pounce out upon the 

 female servants from behind and peck their ankles. He would sit on the 

 top of a spaniel's kennel, and whenever the dog looked out would stoop 

 down with a well-aimed dig at his head. And when the dog was fed the 

 Haven would extract the choicest bones and tidbits from his bucket, and 

 then bury them one after the other in the ground an inch or so beyond 

 the reach of the unfortunate spaniel's chain, croaking all the time to him- 

 self in supreme enjoyment of his cleverness in teasing. Nor would he 

 leave the gardener unmolested. Directly he had gone away for dinner 

 the Raven would hasten to unearth any seeds he might have been sowing, 

 and when the asparagus first broke above ground in the spring he would 

 delight in cutting off the shoots and flying away with them. After any 

 extra piece of mischief he would retire to the stable-roof, and there sit 

 croaking to himself until he thought it safe to venture down again. One 

 spring he was shut up in the stable, because he was found to have a liking 

 for hens' eggs and young chickens, and visited the poultry department 

 oftener than his presence was desired ; he then gave the greatest proof of 

 his ingenuity in mischief. He succeeded in cutting with his powerful 

 beak a small hole at the bottom of the stable-door large enough for a 

 chicken to pass through, and just inside it he would lay a bait consisting 

 of small shreds of his own food, and would then stand quietly expectant 

 behind the door until a hen and her brood approached, when some 

 foolish chick, in spite of the anxious maternal duckings, would be sure 

 to run through the treacherously prepared hole and fall into the 

 Raven's beak. But he met at last with the just reward of his misdeeds. 

 Chasing a chicken one day it ran into a wood-rick, and the Raven 

 following became entangled in the wood, and in his efforts to extricate 

 himself was strangled. 



Another, a young bird from Dartmoor, that was under our care not long 

 ago, whenever he observed us take a spade to do some gardening would 

 join us, intently watching our oi)erations and greedily devouring anj' large 

 earthworms we happened to turn up. When not engaged in such serious 

 work as pulling up the marks for seeds and nipping off the heads of car- 

 nations, or any other bright flower which attracted his attention, he would 

 look aVjout for amusement. Coming quietly up behind our unsuspecting 

 tabby he would inflict a sharp ])inch on her tail, and when she fled from 

 his too pressinif attentions would pursue her with such gigantic hops 

 that she had to put on her best speed to escape from hiui, tlioroui^hly 



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