158 VERTEBRATE FAUNA OF LAKELAND 



Warden they are to be brought to and allow'd in his the said 

 Church or Chapl Wardens Aces.' To this passage Mr. Rigge 

 appends the comment : ' There are no ravens now in the parish, 

 1883. The last I saw was about thirty years ago, flying and 

 croaking near the foot of Windermere.' 2 In Patterdale, again, 

 the head-money given for Ravens was fourpence. Here, as in 

 Martindale and other parishes, the birds hung up on the old 

 yew-trees beside the parish church within living memory. Mr. 

 Jackson, who has not passed middle age, was himself in the 

 habit of thus suspending the birds killed in Martindale. 



Having analysed the records of payments for Ravens in Grey- 

 stoke parish, I find that a total score of 966 Ravens were 

 accounted for by the churchwardens during a period of ninety 

 years, from midsummer 1752 to midsummer 1842. The cost 

 of killing Ravens during this extended period amounts to 

 a total of £16, 2s., fourpence having been given for each 

 Raven head. If we divide the period into nine decades, the 

 figures stand thus : first decade (1752-61), 154 Ravens; second 

 decade (1762-1771), 204; third decade (1772-1781), 135; 

 fourth decade (1782-1791), 116; fifth decade (1792-1801), 

 134; sixth decade (1802-1811), 80; seventh decade (1812- 

 1821), 41; eighth decade (1822-1831), 63; ninth decade 

 (1832-1841), 39. The largest number of Ravens killed in one 

 year during the first decade amounted to thirty-six, paid for 

 between July 5, 1760, and June 20, 1761. The largest 

 number paid for during one year of the second decade was 

 forty-eight, paid for between June 26, 1766, and August 15, 

 1767. It is only in the last three decades that I can find 

 single years in which no Ravens were paid for by the Greystoke 

 churchwardens. In the parish of Crosthwaite, Keswick, the 

 Ravens paid for were nearly always young ones. Thus the dis- 

 bursements of 1711 include, 'To Jno. Cass for two old ravens 

 and 2 young ones, £0, Is. Od. To Miles Wilson for 3 young 

 ravens, £0, 0s. 6d.' In 1751 we read: ' To Wythburn for 5 

 Young Ravens, lOd. ; and to Borrowdale for 5 Ditto, lOd. — 

 £0, Is. 8d. To Crosthwaite and Under Skid daw for 7 Young 

 Ravens, £0, Is. 2d.' We read in 1754 : 'To St. Johns People 

 1 Cumberland and Westmorland Arch. Soc, vol. vii. p. 108. 



