HEWITSOK's "BRITISH OOLOGY." 75 



urns paid for the adult birds, as well as for the eggs and young, 

 being liberal. They attack and often prove very destructive to the 

 young lambs, particularly when their eyry is not far distant from 

 the lambing district of a farm. They are sometimes taken in traps, 

 but more frequently shot, after patient and sometimes long conti- 

 nued watching. They breed in the highest and most inaccessible 

 precipices, and it is rarely that the young or eggs can be got at, 

 even by the dangerous experiment of suspending a person by a rope 

 from the summit of the cliff in which the eyry is placed. Several 

 hair-breadth escapes, as well as fatal accidents, were narrated to us 

 by individuals who had been engaged in these undertakings." * We 



* To those who have not read Mr. Selbv's paper on the mammifers and 

 birds of Sutherlandshire, the following extract will be replete with interest. 

 "The mountainous and rocky character of the greater part of the county, 

 abounding as it does in cliffs of vast perpendicular height, renders it a dis- 

 trict peculiarly favourable to the large raptorial birds, such as the Golden 

 and Cinereous Eagles, Peregrine Falcon, &c. ; and accordingly we find these 

 powerful species still pretty numerous, though every device is resorted to for 

 their destruction, on account of the havoc they commit upon the flocks. The 

 same may be said of the Fox, the Marten, and the wild Cat, which find pro- 

 tection in the numerous fastnesses of the rocks, and in the caves which 

 abound in the limestone districts. The following list, copied from a docu- 

 ment furnished by Mr. Baigrie, of the Foxes, Martens, Cats, Eagles, Ra- 

 vens, &c, destroyed in the county within the last three years, will afford 

 some idea of their numerous distribution ; and the amount of premiums paid, 

 the liberal inducement held out for their destruction. 



" List of vermin destroyed, and premiums paid for the same, on the Duchess- 

 Countess of Sutherland's estates in the county of Sutherland, from March, 

 1831, to March, 1834. £. s. d. 



71 Old bitch Foxes, @ 42s 149 2 



49 Young ditto @ 20s 49 



70 Old dog ditto @ 15s 54 15 



46 Young ditto @ 7s. 6c?. 17 5 



901 Wild Cats, Martens, and Fumarts, @ 2s. Qd 112 12 6 



418 Weasels [and Stoats], @ Is 20 18 



263 Otters, @ 5s 65 15 



171 Full-grown Eagles, @ 21s 179 11 



53 Young ditto and Eagles' eggs, @ 10s 26 10 



936 Havens, @ 2s 93 12 



1055 Hawks, @ Is. 52 15 



1739 Carrion Crows* and Magpies, at 6d. 43 9 6 



548 Kingfishers,t @ 6rf. . 13 14 



£878 19 



* All of the species Corvus comix, or Hooded Crow. 



+ The Dipper is so called throughout Sutherland and other parts of the Highlands. The 

 Alcedo ispida is rarely seen. 



