RAVENS. 219 
found him pursuing his cautious predatory life, just 
as in England. 
With us he may he called the herald of the year ; 
for as early as the latter end of January, if the 
weather he mild, or at all events in the beginning of 
February, some faithful pair, (for the union of the 
male and female is for life,) may he seen looking 
into the state of their nursery-tenement, usually con- 
structed on the upper and most inaccessible branching 
fork of some high tree, where they have been known 
to build beyond the memory of the most ancient 
chronicler of the parish. Probably most of our 
readers have, if not within their own precincts, at 
least within their knowledge, a venerable establish- 
ment of this description. Ours is a noble beech, 
about ninety feet in height, in the centre of a 
beautiful wood, — from time immemorial called the 
Raven tree. At one extremity of this wood, a noisy 
troop of Jackdaws have long been accustomed to 
rear their progeny unmolested, provided they ven- 
ture not too near the sacred tree of the Ravens, — 
in which case, one or other of the old birds dashes 
upon the intruder, and the wood is in an, uproar, 
till the incautious bird is driven off. Few have 
dared to scale the height of this famed tree ; but 
the names of one or two individuals are on record, 
who have accomplished the perilous undertaking, 
and carried off the contents of the nest. 
Some years ago, the wife of a neigbouring farmer 
made such loud complaints, on the diminution of a 
fine brood of young turkies, which occasionally 
wandered from her farm-yard into some fields ad- 
jacent to the wood, that one of the old ones was 
