222 
RAVENS. 
attention to the nests, immediately took her place, 
and continued to sit very closely, though uselessly, 
oyer the chilled and lifeless eggs, which were com- 
pletely addled. 
At all events, while sitting or rearing its progeny, 
the Raven deserves the highest credit for persevering 
attachment, and has been known (though one of the 
shyest and most suspicious of birds) to die rather than 
desert its post. Mr. White, the naturalist, of Sel- 
borne, speaks of an old oak as his Raven-tree, 
which bulged out into a large excrescence in the 
middle of the stem, defying the attempts of all who 
aspired to get at the nest. Many had tried in vain ; 
all were ambitious of surmounting the arduous task, 
but when they arrived at the swelling, it jutted out 
so in their way, and was so far beyond their grasp, 
that the most daring and expert climbers were awed, 
and were obliged to give up the undertaking as too 
hazardous. So the Raven built on, nest after nest, 
in perfect security, till a fatal day arrived, when the 
wood was to be levelled. It was in the month of 
February, and the old one was on her nest. The 
saw and the hatchet were both at work, the wedges 
were inserted into the opening, the woods echoed to 
the heavy blows of the beetle or mallet, the tree 
nodded to its fall; but still the dam sat on. At last, 
when it gave way, the bird was flung from her nest, 
and, though her constancy deserved a better fate, 
was whipped down by twigs, which brought her dead 
to the ground. 
But constant or affectionate as they may be to 
their brood, it lasts but for a time ; and as is the 
case with Eagles, and indeed almost all birds, when 
