RAVEN. 187 



" Nearly an hour elapsed before the arrival of the male bird, 

 and I was first made aware of his approach by the consterna- 

 tion which it appeared to spread among the jackdaws. Like 

 most animals under similar circumstances, when conscious of the 

 approach of danger, they rapidly collected their forces on a 

 single tree, keeping up all the time an incessant chattering, 

 each bird shifting his position rapidly from bough to bough, 

 while the Raven, who held some food in his beak, satisfied 

 himself on this occasion with two or three swoops into the 

 terrified crowd, and having routed the greater part of them, 

 he approached the tree in which his nest was placed. 



" Before arriving there, however, he evidently became aware 

 of my presence, and dropping his prey, which proved to be a 

 rat, he ascended in the air to a great height in circular gyra- 

 tions, after the manner of a falcon, where he was soon joined 

 by his consort, and the two birds continued to soar above my 

 head while I remained there, uttering not only their usual 

 hoarse croak, but also an extraordinary sound resembling the 

 exclamation " Oh ! " loudly and clearly ejaculated. 



" At first I could scarcely persuade myself that it proceeded 

 from the throat of either of the Ravens, but my doubts were 

 soon dispelled, for there was no human being within sight ; 

 and after carefully examining one of the birds for some time 

 with the glass, I observed that each note was preceded by an 

 opening of the beak, the great distance, of course, preventing 

 sight and sound from being simultaneous. 



" I could not accurately distinguish to which of the birds 

 this exclamation was to be attributed, but it apparently pro- 

 ceeded from one only, which seemed to be the female, or 

 lesser of the two, and if intended to have the effect of im- 

 posing silence on its young, proved perfectly successful ; for 

 during the two hours that I remained there, the latter never 

 uttered a cry. 



" With the assistance of ladders firmly fixed together, the 



