712 APPENDIX. 



gaged in picking the seeds from the catkins of the alder. Even 

 during frost, it is seldom met with at a distance from water. 



CORVUS CORAX. THE RAVEN, OR CORBY CROW. 

 Vol. I, p. 498. 



I have described the manners of this interesting bird, as ob- 

 served by me in the Hebrides, where it is not uncommon. 

 The following notice by Dr Laurence Edmondston, refers to it 

 as studied in Shetland. 



" The E,aven uniformly breeds in the most inaccessible pre- 

 cipices, and has three or four young. He is destructive to 

 Iambs, and to weak animals of every kind. His first attacks 

 are always directed at the eye. and if unmolested, in a few 

 seconds the animal may be destroyed, for he not only digs out 

 the eye with his powerful bill, but penetrates to the brain in 

 the course of the optic nerve. He has consequently been long 

 proscribed, and a price set on his head. He is the true Gre- 

 garach Ornithos of Hialteland, levying black mail with un- 

 scrupulous assiduity if not courage. More recently indications 

 of a milder legislation have appeared. The spirit of retrench- 

 ment, economy, and free trade, hostile to all bounties, and the 

 philanthropy of reform reprobating all capital punishments, 

 will ere long, it is to be hoped, enable the Corby Dim sub- 

 limely to croak in security amidst the lonely moors and naked 

 rocks of ' melancholy Thule.' His note, although, it must 

 be confessed, not over-melodious, is varied and expressive. 

 One of his solos is thought peculiarly indicative of an approach- 

 ing funeral. It is strange that in almost all countries where 

 he occurs, some lugubrious superstition is associated with him. 



" This bird, although scantily provided with fat and feathers, 

 is especially the denizen of cold regions, and is impatient of 

 heat, even of our summer. He becomes languid and oppress- 

 ed, ruffles his plumage, and fans himself with his wings, pant- 

 ing with open mouth like a fatigued dog. Can the alkaline 

 putrescent nature of his food stand in any relation of cause or 

 elfect to this impatience of high temperature ? 



