ROOK-^RA YEN, 
87 
Park, which, attempting to fly, fell from the trees with their 
wings frozen together by the sleet, which froze as it fell. 
99. CoTvus co7'ax. Raven. 
" Till in the cold wind that foreruns the morn, 
A blot in heaven, the Raven, flying high, 
Croak'd, and she thought, ' He spies a field of death.' " 
Tennyson! s " Guinevej'e." 
A scarce resident, now confined to the Isle of Wight. 
On the strength of two pairs still nesting in the Isle of 
Wight — one pair on the Culver Cliffs occasionally, and the 
other pair regularly on the Freshwater Cliffs — this bird 
may still claim a place among our residents, but it appears 
to be quite extinct as a nesting species on the mainland, 
though occurring occasionally in all parts, chiefly in winter. 
Within the last half century resident pairs were found 
in several localities throughout Hampshire, but they kept 
the district around their nesting-places so completely under 
their domination — hardly any small living creature being 
allowed to exist in the immediate vicinity — that it is not 
surprising that they themselves eventually succumbed to a 
still more powerful destroyer, who had an interest in 
preserving their victims. 
We think of them now with a kind of sentimental 
regret, but we cannot deny that they were bold and cruel 
marauders, with everyone's hand against them, except so 
far as they lived under the immediate protection of private 
domains. 
The raven has the honour of being the first bird men- 
tioned by Gilbert White, and the famous passage in his 
