72 



SPRING 



spring hangs in the top of the other, the ringing cry of the 

 kestrel from some neighbouring rock tells us that it, too, is 

 tenanted. The extreme conspicuousness of such nesting- 

 places illustrates only too clearly one reason for the diminu- 

 tion of the birds of prey. 



The wheatear in its bur- 

 row and the wary curlew 

 on the wide waste bring 

 up their young in safe 

 concealment ; but the 

 black nest of the crow 

 or magpie is often the 

 most conspicuous object 

 on the whole of the May 

 moors. The rowans and 

 ashes leaf late, and the 

 nesting marauders do 

 not wait for them ; the 

 shepherd's boys pocket 

 the kestrel's red eggs 

 and the crow's green 

 ones, or the game- 

 keeper destroys the 

 whole brood by a charge 

 of shot from the hillside 

 close at hand. The 

 grey or hooded crow 

 takes the place of the carrion crow in the north and west of 

 Scotland, as well as in Ireland; and where trees are absent, 

 it builds its nest on some slope of rock, or even among the 

 flat heather on some little islet in the lonely Hebridean lochs, 

 where the thin song of the omnipresent titlark contrasts with 

 the harsh cries of goosanders and herons. 



