92 HILL BIRDS OF SCOTLAND 



of the night in the hope that she will return to the nest 

 and offer a chance of a shot. 



On a certain occasion a Hoodie had her young on a 

 grouse moor. The keeper on whose beat the outcasts 

 had made their appearance constructed a " hide " in the 

 vicinity of the nest and waited for many hours in the hopes 

 that the parent birds would return with food for their 

 family and would offer the chance of a shot. But they 

 never put in an appearance, and so the keeper cut off the 

 top of the tree with the nest on it, placed it on the ground, 

 and set traps round it. The strategy was successful, and 

 before long both parent birds were accounted for. 



But fortunately for the Hoodie, there are two sanc- 

 tuaries still open for it in Scotland — one on the coasts, 

 the other amongst some of the wilder deer forests where 

 the Grouse are discouraged, and where for this reason the 

 Grey Crow may even be looked upon with favour. Here 

 the birds remain throughout the year in comparative safety, 

 but immediately they extend their ranges to the neigh- 

 bouring grouse moors a most hostile reception awaits them. 



The reputation of the Grey Crow is certainly not a 

 savoury one. He is an inveterate thief, and during the 

 nesting season he is ever on the alert to pick up and carry 

 away the eggs of any Grouse who has left her nest un- 

 guarded while she is away feeding. These ill-gotten 

 trophies the Hoodie bears off — carrying them in his bill 

 — to some moss or burnside, where he helps down his repast 

 with draughts of water. He does not confine his unwel- 

 come attentions only to birds — a newly-dropped lamb 

 or a sickly ewe may be set upon by a number of Grey 

 Crows, and the unlucky victim's eyes pulled out while 

 the breath is still in its body. To the shepherds of the 

 western coasts the bird is the embodiment of evil. To 

 them he is An t-eun Acarachd — " the bird without compas- 

 sion " — and they name him truly indeed. 



