Mn Macgillivray's Account of the Outer Hebrides. 323 



begins his feast by picking out the eyes, and afterwards the tongue, 

 if he can easily get at it : the perinseum is next attacked, and last- 

 ly the abdomen, from which he drags out the intestines and de- 

 vours them. When a horse dies, from thirty to fifty soon gather 

 about him, and continue to make daily visits until the bones are 

 picked. The raven wages a kind of distant war mth the eagle, 

 two of them generally harassing the latter bird when it appears in 

 the neighbourhood of their abode, on which account ravens are 

 never shot by the islanders during the breeding season. When a 

 raven has lost his mate during this season, even after the young 

 ones are far advanced, he is observed to procure a stepmother for 

 them with great celerity. 



10. Corvus Cornix, the Hooded Crow, Feannag, in Lewis nam- 

 ed also Starrag, is as common as the raven, and resides and nestles 

 in the same places. It frequents nearly the same places, but is more 

 especially piscivorous, and does not venture to appear along with 

 the raven at a carrion feast, while the latter in like manner gives- 

 place to the eagle. Some ornithologists have imagined the carrion 

 crow to be a variety of this species. In the Outer Hebrides, the 

 latter bird is utterly unknown, and the young hooded crows are in- 

 variably of the same general colours as the old ; nor, although I 

 have seen many thousands of these birds, have I ever observed any 

 remarkable variation in the tints of their plumage. 



11. Corvns frugilegus, the Rook, An Rocuis, is not a resident 

 species, but sometimes appears in severe weather during the winter 



12. Pyrrhocorax Graculus, the Red-legged Crow, is not un- 

 common in the Barray Islands, at the southern extremity of the 

 range, but is not met with elsewhere. It nestles in cliffs. 



13. Sturnus vulgaris, the Starling, An Druid, inhabits rocks 

 and caverns chiefly on the western shores. In some places, as in 

 the islet of Copay, it breeds in holes in the grass, which do not ap- 

 pear to have been foYmed by itself, but to be the deserted retreats 

 of rats. Their food consists of worms and insects, which they pick 

 commonly from among cow-dung. They are seen attending the 

 herds in large flocks, often perching on the backs of cows, horses, 

 and sheep. In winter they are granivorous, assemble in immense 

 flocks, and frequent the fields and cornyards. Six or ten may easi- 

 ly be killed at a shot, and they are instantly after decapitated, the 

 natives having a notion that poison is contained in their head. 



3. Insectivora. 



14. Turdus pilaris, the Fieldfare, appears in small numbers in 

 the beginning of winter, but rarely, and I have never seen it, after 

 Christmas. 



15. Turdus iliacus, the Redtving, also appears in winter, and I 

 have seen individuals in spring, and even in summer. 



VOL. II. 2 T 



