46 
EGGS STOLEN BY RAVENS. 
often be found upon the downs above, and naturalists pro- 
foundly assert that stoats and weasels are the aggressors : 
thus assigning to those lithesome quadrupeds a marvellous 
extent of clifF-scaling capability. 
The Raven has no less taste for willock's eggs than the 
gull, but his manoeuvres are somewhat different : he never 
pierces the egg, but seizes it suddenly and darts off to the 
top of the cliff, amid the uproar of the colony. While on 
the look-out, he traverses silently and slowly the face of 
the cliff, making little circles, and returning again and 
again to the same hunting-ground, but the moment he 
spies an unprotected egg, he darts in, seizes it — I suppose 
with his feet, and makes off like an an'ow to the summit, 
there to enjoy his meal at leisure. You may mark him 
down, and then by vociferous shouting and running to the 
place, make him leave his booty, which is always sound 
and whole. 
The Peregrine Falcon has had her eyrie here from 
time immemorial : and these noble birds are often to be 
seen soaring about the cliff, the terror of jackdaws, whose 
young at this season constitute their favourite prey, or per- 
haps the favourite food of their own young. The fisher- 
men told me that this falcon always breeds here, and that 
it is constantly following the kestrels,* which abound all 
along the cliff, as if to drive them away from his territory. 
* " The parent birds are now well nigh considered sacred ; or rather, if the 
truth must be told, it has been found more gainful to preserve than to destroy 
them ; seeing that the young birds bring in half-a-guinea each to the fortunate 
possessor of the nest. It is unquestionably true, that if one of the old birds be 
destroyed, the survivor will find another mate, and return at the period of incu- 
bation to the wonted locality. Of the pair frequenting the Freshwater cliffs, what 
particulars I am enabled to give, were learned from one of the cliffmen, named 
Jackman. When I made his acquaintance, in the autumn of 1839, he told 
