venge until the young ones, full grown and fat, are peeping over the brink of the nest, and almost ready to abandon it altogether. He would always delay his attack till this period, but as the young advance in age and size, the more extensively and recklessly do their parents cater for their support.
"When Ravens set out on a long journey they always travel in pairs, and so high in the air, that were it not for their frequent crying, they would escape notice altogether. So great is the height at which they fly, that no cliff or peak, however lofty, can cause them to swerve from the direct course on which they are bent."[1]
In the southern parts of Britain, where precipitous rocks are uncommon, the Raven usually selects as its breeding-place some lofty tree, using the same for successive years. White, in his charming "Natural History of Selborne," has mentioned such an one, and recorded the tragical fate of its possessor. "In the centre of this grove," says he, "there stood an oak, which, though shapely and tall on the whole, bulged out into a large excrescence about the middle of the stem. On this a pair of Ravens had fixed their residence for such a series of years, that the oak was distinguished by the title of the Raven-tree. Many were the attempts of the neighbouring youths to get at this eyry; the difficulty whetted their inclinations, and each was 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 lads were awed, and acknowledged the undertaking to be too hazard-
- ↑ Zoologist, i. 215.
