400 



RAVEN. 



was thus confined; but as it destroys young lambs and sickly sheep, 

 which it makes a prey of by first picking- out their eyes, the husband- 

 man holds it in detestation. Young- chickens and ducks are no less 

 respected by this carnivorous bird. 



It is easily domesticated, and is very mischievous, readily catching- up 

 any thing glittering and hiding it. We have been assured, by a gentle- 

 man of veracity, that his butler having missed a great many silver spoons 

 and other articles, without being able to detect the thief for some time, 

 at last observed a tame Raven with one in his mouth, and watched him 

 to his hiding-place, where he found more than a dozen. 



The Raven generally makes choice of the largest trees to build in. 

 The nest is formed of sticks, and lined with wool, hair, and various 

 other substances ; it is commonly placed in the fork of the larger 

 branches. It lays five or six eggs of a bluish-green colour, blotched 

 and spotted with brown and ash-colour, somewhat larger than that of a 

 crow ; their weight from six or seven drams. It is no unusual circum- 

 stance for these birds to make their nest contiguous to a rookery, and 

 by their continual depredations on the nests of that republic, com- 

 pletely to drive them away. Several such instances have occurred to 

 our knowledge, where the Ravens were observed to rob the rook's nest 

 of their callow brood for the purpose of feeding their own young ; and 

 it has been long before the colony recovered its usual population. This 

 is one of the earliest breeders amongst British birds, frequently com- 

 mencing their nest in the middle of February. * White, of Selborne, de- 

 scribes the nest of a pair of these birds in his usual interesting manner. 

 " In the centre of a grove," says he, " stood an oak, which, though 

 shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence 

 about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of Ravens had fixed their 

 nest for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the 

 name of the Raven's Tree. Many were the attempts of the neighbour- 

 ing youths to get at the eyrie : the difficulty whetted their inclinations, 

 and each was ambitious of surmounting the ardent task. But when 

 they arrived at the swelling, it jutted so in their way, and was so far 

 beyond their grasp, that the most daring lads were awed, and acknow- 

 ledged the undertaking to be too hazardous. So the Ravens built on, 

 nest upon nest, in perfect security, till the fatal day arrived in which 

 the wood was to be levelled ; it was in the month of February, when 

 they usually sit. The saw was applied to the trunk ; the wedges were 

 inserted into the opening ; the woods echoed to the heavy blows of the 

 mallet ; and the tree nodded to its fall ; but stiD the dam sat on. At 

 last, when it gave way, the bird was flung from the nest; and though 



