522 CORVUS CORONE. 



readily get upon her feet, and during her eftbrts to rise, these 

 foul and rapacious feeders pick out the ej^es, and gnaw away 

 the tongue of the lamb ; and if the ewe be much exhausted, 

 they destroy her on the spot. Even this is not all. The 

 lamb may be produced strong and vigorous. The hungry 

 harpies, though in close attendance, may have found no op- 

 portunity of indulging their appetite. But, after it has won 

 to its feet, and its mother has tenderly cleaned it, they 

 hastily seize it by the umbilical cord, which generally breaks 

 about a finger's length or two from the belly. At the first pull, 

 the small intestines are uncoiled and protruded, on which the 

 lamb directly falls and dies. The Crow is thus furnished with 

 a good repast, and perhaps superadds a spauld from the body, 

 or digs throuo'h the ribs for the heart, which she carries to her 

 young, who swallow it, or whatever is brought, with consi- 

 derable noise and voracity. 



" I will here relate a circumstance which strongly certifies 

 the voracious nature of this fowl, and I may add that the facts 

 above narrated have many times come under my observation. 

 Travelling athwart my hill, I came suddenly upon a hawk, or 

 rather a large glede,* killing a moorfowl. How he had got 

 it in his clutches I do not know ; probably he had lighted on 

 it by surprise, for he could not seize it in fair flight. The 

 grouse was screeching piteously, and fluttering to get away ; the 

 glede striving to retain his hold, and keep himself uppermost. 

 I ran to save the life of the poor thing ; but my dogs hearing 

 it to be the noise of a creature in distress, were sooner at the 

 spot than I ; the glede was obliged to relinquish his prey ; and 

 the moorfowl, when freed from the talons of its enemy, flew 

 straight down the glen, — a direction which it would not have 

 taken had its flight been voluntary, or not under the influence 

 of fear. It had to pass a small clump of firs, among the 

 branches of which a Carrion Crow chanced to rest at the time. 

 In a moment, the Crow saw it was a fowl nearly exhausted, 

 and darted out after it ; and it was surprising to see with 

 what rapidity she flapped her wings, and how she stretched 



* Probal:ily a Buzzard, Buteo vulgaris. 



