Perching Birds. 3 
Robinson, that most delightful of observers of the habits of birds, discourses on 
the ‘ First Nest ot a Rookery ’ ; and he mentions several facts which seem to 
me to have been unnoticed before, one of the most important of which is that a 
second hen bird, having no nest and eggs of her own, was allowed to take part 
in the incubation of the eggs of a lawful mother. 
THE RAVEN. 
(Corvus corax.) 
The Raven is the largest of the European Crows, and is found in 
North America as well as in the northern parts of the Old World. The 
species has been so persecuted on account of the supposed depreda- 
tions it commits, that it has deserted many of its old breeding-haunts, and now nests 
but seldom in inland counties, though its eyrie is still to be found on several of our 
rocky coasts. It breeds quite early in the year, and eggs are to be found in the 
beginning of March or at the end of February. They are large editions of the eggs 
of the Rook and Carrion Crow, and are sometimes so small that they can scarcely be 
distinguished from those of the latter bird. From its size the Raven is able to make 
