BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 117 
amidst the capitals of large supporting columns, and week 
after week endeavours to place the sticks across the pro- 
jecting ledges or ornaments. One or two might remain for 
a short while, but were sure to be displaced in fresh attempts, 
while underneath the result of a morning's labour was 
often as much as a single person could at once remove ; 
this we have known continued in the same spot for 
some years."* The usual nesting-place, however, is in 
a young fir tree from fifteen to twenty feet high, where huge 
nests are built, and often two or three are seen in one tree. 
Old nests formerly tenanted by the Long-eared Owl or Wood- 
Pigeon are frequently used as a foundation, but in many 
parts of the county the Jackdaws breed in colonies in rabbit- 
burrows, or on the ledges and crevices of steep chffs. 
The habit of hawking insects in the air, referred to under 
the Starling (p. 108), has also been noticed in this species. f 
Sir William Jardine writing of the birds of the parish of 
Applegarth and Sibbaldbie in 1832 says that this bird is 
sometimes seen varied with white,} but I am not aware of 
any such varieties obtained recently. 
THE RAVEN. Corvus corax, Linnaeus. 
Local name — Corbie. 
" The Raven croaks a softer way, 
His sooty love to woo." 
Allan Cunningham. — " The Return of Spring.'* 
A resident nesting annually, where protected, on some of the more 
maccessible crags ; in autumn and winter it roams more widely in search 
of food. 
The Raven was certainly more common at the beginning 
of the nineteenth century than it is now. David Tweedie, 
* Nat. Lib., 1839, Vol. XL, p. 236. 
t Dumfries Courier and Herald, April 10th, 1890. 
t New Stat. Acct. Scot., Vol. IV., p. 180. 
