510 CORVUS CORAX. 



the Highland districts, especially along the western shores, I 

 have met with it here and there. In the lower parts of the 

 middle division of Scotland it is of much rarer occurrence ; nor 

 is it plentiful even in the higher and more central portions of 

 the southern division, although I have seen it in many places 

 there, as among the hills of the counties of Dumfries and 

 Peebles, the Pentland Hills, and the Lammer JMoor. Not 

 many years ago a pair of ravens used to build in the rocks of 

 Arthur's Seat, close to Edinburgh. In England, it is much less 

 frequently met with than in Scotland, although it seems to bo 

 generally distributed there. 



If we take the whole range of the island as its residence, we 

 must add to its bill of fare many articles not mentioned above, 

 so as to include young hares and rabbits, other small quadru- 

 peds, as rats, moles, and mice, young poultry, and the young 

 of other birds, as pheasants, grouse, ducks, and geese ; eggs of 

 all kinds, echini, mollusca, fruit, barley, wheat, and oats ; in- 

 sects, Crustacea, grubs, worms, and probably m.any other arti- 

 cles, besides fish and carrion of all sorts. The raven is there- 

 fore certainly the most t^-pical pantophagist that exists among 

 our native birds. 



My esteemed fi-iend, Mr. William Hogg, Stobo Hope, 

 Peebles-shire, has favoured me with the following observations 

 on the Paven, vvdiich are of great value, as coming from a re- 

 spectable and intelligent individual, whose lot, as he says, has 

 always been to dwell in a wild and mountainous district, where 

 he has had opportunities of attending to many of the pheno- 

 mena of nature. 



" In the place where I reside at present the Ravens are sel- 

 dom seen, except in their passage from one mountainous dis- 

 trict to another. I know them by their size, by their hoarse 

 and hollow croak, and by the height at which they fly. Their 

 sight and smell are very acute, for when they are searching the 

 wastes for provision, they hover over them at a great height, 

 and yet a sheep will not be dead many minutes before they will 

 find it. Nay, if a morbid smell transpire from any in the flock, 

 they will watch it for days till it die. I think the Ravens 

 which traverse the wilds of Dumfries, Peebles, Roxburgh, and 



