Two new raven chicks arrive at the Tower of London

Two five-week-old raven chicks, Henry and Poe, have arrived at their new home in the Tower of London.

"Troublemakers" Henry and Poe will spend the next few weeks in the enclosure before being introduced to the six other ravens there and eventually encouraged to explore their new residence.

Henry is named after all of the Henrys who have lived at the 900-year-old palace and Poe is named after the writer Edgar Allan Poe whose works include the poem The Raven.

The Tower usually has six ravens at any time and, according to legend, if they ever leave, it is said that both the fortress and the kingdom will fall.

The new arrivals were born in April as part of the Tower of London's raven breeding programme and join Jubilee, Harris, Poppy, Georgie, Edgar and Chaos at the fortress.

The group of ravens - known as an unkindness or conspiracy - are cared for by the Ravenmaster Barney Chandler and his team.

"It's an honour to be introducing our new raven chicks Henry and Poe to the Tower of London, and I'm absolutely delighted with how they've settled in so far," said Mr Chandler.

"The team and I have had a busy couple of weeks looking after these troublemakers, who require a lot of care and attention when they're very young, but now that they're almost fully fledged we're ready to bring them into the fold and let the other ravens take over showing them the ropes."

The corvids are fed a variety of raw meat each day, an egg once a week and blood-soaked biscuits as a special treat.

The Tower of London added that the ravens' important duties included "posing for photographs and taste-testing packed lunch items".

Legend says that King Charles II was the first to insist that the ravens of the Tower of London be protected.

The story is that the King's astronomer John Flamsteed, who had an observatory in the White Tower, complained that the resident ravens were impeding his work and requested their removal.

The king was advised that if the ravens left the Tower of London the kingdom would fall - the legend has been kept alive ever since.

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