114 BIRDS AND MAN 



and that in process of time he shall reign again 

 and recover his kingdom and sceptre, for which 

 reason it cannot be proved that, from that day 

 to this, any Englishman has killed a raven ? " 



Now, it is certain that many EngUshmen kill 

 ravens, also that if the country people in England 

 ever had any knowledge of King Arthur they 

 have long forgotten it. Nevertheless this par- 

 ticular superstition still exists. I have met 

 with it in various places, and found an instance of 

 it only the other day in the Midlands, where the 

 raven no longer breeds. Near Broadway, in 

 Worcestershire, there is a farm called "Kite's 

 Nest," where a pair of ravens bred annually up 

 to about twenty-eight or thirty years ago, when 

 the young were taken and the nest pulled down 

 by three young men from the village : to this 

 day it is related by some of the old people that 

 the three young men all shortly came to bad 

 ends. Near Broadway an old farmer told me 

 that since the birds had been driven away from 

 " Kite's Nest " he had not seen a raven in that 

 part of the country until one made its appearance 

 on his farm about four years ago. He was out 

 one day with his gun, cautiously approaching a 



