RAVENS IN SOMERSET 109 



were greatly disturbed at my presence on the cliff. 

 Their anxiety was not strange, seeing that their 

 nest is annually plundered in the interest of the 

 "cursed collector," as Sir Herbert Maxwell has 

 taught us to name the worst enemy of the rarer 

 British birds. The "worst," I say, but there is 

 another almost if not quite as bad, and who in 

 the case of some species is really worse. At 

 intervals of from fifteen to twenty minutes they 

 would appear overhead uttering their angry, deep 

 croak, and, with wings outspread, seemingly with- 

 out an effort on their part, allow the wind to Uft 

 them higher and higher until they would look 

 no bigger than daws ; and, after dwelling for a 

 couple of minutes on the air at that great height, 

 they would descend to the earth again, to dis- 

 appear behind a neighbouring cliff. And on 

 each occasion they exhibited that wonderful 

 aerial feat, characteristic of the raven, and 

 perhaps unique among birds, of coming down 

 in a series of long drops with closed wings. I 

 am incUned to think that a strong wind is neces- 

 sary for the performance of this feat, enabling 

 the bird to fall obliquely, and to arrest the fall 

 at any moment by merely throwing out the 



