AXD NEIGHBOURHOOD. 215 



and sympathetic tone, which must have been peculiarly 

 aggTavating to the injured, one. The Rooks appeared 

 to be on good terms with these Ravens, but we noticed 

 that Sankey seemed to have a great objection to 

 seeing, as often happened, a Jackdaw or Starling 

 perched on the back of a sheep, and would at once 

 dispossess such an individual of his seat and occupy 

 it himself. Any superfluous food was generally 

 hidden away for future consumption, and the hiding- 

 places often quaintly chosen : e. g. we once saw the 

 Raven carefully part the long feathers on the back 

 of one of our Emus, insert a small fish from his 

 pouch, rearrange the feathers, and hop off with the 

 air of having done a very clever thing. These two 

 Ravens used to roost regularly all the year round on 

 the same bough of a large beech close to the house, 

 and seemed neither to fear or sufler from any stress 

 of weather whatever. In the early spring of 1880 

 they built two or three nests, but, as far as I could 

 find out, did not lay any eggs. Poor old Sankey 's 

 successor, and companion for the last two or three 

 years of his life, is a bird that I received from 

 Holland, and rejoices in repeating the name of his 

 departed ally. This Raven, whom we have named 

 " Grip," in memory of the classic bird of ' Barnaby 

 Rudge,' paired in 1894 mth an Andalucian of his 

 species ; the happy couple built a huge nest of sticks, 

 moss, and leaves in the beech tree above alluded to, 

 five eo-ss were laid, and four of them hatched. I 

 have given away the young birds, and at this time of 

 writing, October 1894, they are all thriving, and I 

 trust respectively "a joy" to their owners. In spite 

 of the wariness and caution of the Raven in a wild 

 state, it is an exceedingly bold bird with regard to 



