RAVEN. 509 



to utter when in a sportive mood ; for although ordinarily grave, 

 the Raven sometimes indulges in a frolic, performing somersets 

 and various evolutions in the air, much in the manner of the 

 Rook. 



I have frequently seen Ravens perch on the roofs of huts in 

 the Hebrides, more especially on the pole that projects at each 

 end, and supports the heather ropes by which the thatch is se- 

 cured. They also frequently visit the dunghils at their doors 

 in the summer mornings, before the people are out of bed. 

 They are not there, as in some parts of the country, viewed as 

 boding death to the inmates ; but it is considered unlucky for 

 a marriage party to meet a raven, unless it should be killed, in 

 which case the omen is good. I have no faith in the faculty 

 which ravens, crows, and magpies, are alleged by some to pos- 

 sess, of discovering by the sense of smell or otherwise the exis- 

 tence in a house of disease or death. It is certain that ravens 

 can have no experience in this matter ; and if their natural in- 

 stinct or sagacity should enable them to discover approaching 

 death in a human being, how does it happen that they never 

 settle on the back or in the neighbourhood of a sickly animal, 

 until it has presented visible indications of decay I 



The character of the Raven accords well with the desolate 

 aspect of the rugged glens of the Hebridian moors. He and 

 the eagle are the fit inhabitants of those grim rocks ; the red 

 grouse, the plover, and its page, of those brown and scarred 

 heaths ; the ptarmigan of those craggy and tempest-beaten sum- 

 mits. The red-throated diver and the merganser, beautiful as 

 they are, fail to give beauty to those pools of dark-brown water, 

 edged with peat banks, and unadorned with sylvan verdure. 

 Even the water-lily, w^ith its splendid white flowers, floating 

 on the deep bog, reflects no glory on the surrounding scenery, 

 but selfishly draws all your regards to itself. There, on the 

 rifted crag, let the dark raven croak to his mate, while we 

 search for the species in distant parts of the land. 



According to Mr. Edmonston, Mr. Forbes, Low and others, 

 the species is very abundant in the Orkney and Shetland 

 Islands. In Sutherland, as I am informed by my friend Mr. 

 Alexander MacGillivray, it is also not uncommon. In most of 



