RAVEN. 505 



and in spring it occasionally destroys young lambs. It has also 

 been accused of killing diseased sheep by picking out their 

 e3"es ; but of this I have obtained no satisfactory evidence. It 

 annoys the housewives by sometimes flying off with young 

 poultry, and especially by breaking and sucking eggs which 

 the ducks or hens may have deposited, as they frequently do, 

 among the herbage. 



In these islands, should a horse or a cow^ die, as in my 

 younger days was very frequently the case in the beginning of 

 summer, after a severe winter or spring, or should a grampus or 

 other large cetaceous animal be cast on the shore, the ravens 

 speedily assemble, and remain in the neighbourhood until they 

 have devoured it. A large herd of Grampuses, Delphinus 

 Orca, having been driven by the inhabitants of Pabbay on the 

 sand beach of that island, which is one of those in the Sound 

 of Harris, an amazing number of ravens soon collected from all 

 quarters, and continued for several weeks to feast upon the 

 carcases. By the time when this supply of food was exhausted, 

 autumn was advancing, and the inhabitants became alarmed 

 lest, should the ravens prolong their stay, they should attack 

 their barley, which was their main stay, as they depended 

 chiefly upon it for the means of paying their rents, a regular 

 system of illicit distillation having, for reasons not difficult to 

 be guessed, been permitted for many years. Various expedi- 

 ents were tried in vain, until at length a scheme was devised 

 by one Finlay Morison wdiich produced the desired effect. 

 The ravens retired at night to a low cliff" on the east side of 

 the island, where they slept crowded together on the shelves. 

 Finlay and a few chosen companions, intimately acquainted 

 with the principal fissures and projections of the rock, made 

 their way after midnight to the roosts of the ravens, caught 

 a considerable number of them, and carried them off" alive. 

 They then plucked oft' all their feathers excepting those of the 

 wings and tail, and in the morning when their companions 

 were leaving their places of repose, let loose among them these 

 live scare-crows. The ravens terrified by the appearance of 

 those strange-looking creatures, which it seems they failed to 

 recognise as their own kinsfolk, betook themselves to flight in 



