90 Transactions of the [Sess. 



despised Sparrow propagates his species plentifully enough to call 

 down on his head the execrations of the farming community, whose 

 scanty crops are certainly not rendered more valuable by his pre- 

 dilection for grain diet. But, in common with all granivorous 

 birds, he has his light as well as his dark side, being a considerable 

 destroyer of grubs and insects during the nesting season, so that it 

 is a moot-point whether his good qualities, if fairly weighed, would 

 not counterbalance his bad. Another bird much vilified by agri- 

 culti;rists for the same and other reasons is the Eook, but in his 

 case the redeeming qualities seem to preponderate. Endowed with 

 a most accommodating appetite, to which no edible substance ever 

 seems to come amiss, he plays the part of scavenger during spring 

 and winter to perfection ; and when Ave consider the extraordinary 

 extent and variety of his cuisine, and the apparently equal relish 

 with which he fluctuates from grubs and snails to eggs or grain, 

 from fresh to rotten meat and other garbage, we cannot but think 

 with wonder and admiration on his digestive powers, which are 

 certainly of no ordinary kind. It is patent to all that the Rook is 

 not what one with any regard to truth would term a songster, his 

 usual cry being diametrically opposed to what we understand by 

 melody. But, nevertheless, he at times solaces himself with a few 

 notes widely different from the harsh and well-known " caw." This 

 musical freak is perpetrated by a solitary bird who sits on some 

 prominent place, and then gives birth to a gurgling sound ; and 

 judging from the quaint antics accompanying his efforts, he seems 

 to derive intense satisfaction therefrom, although the same feelings 

 of delight do not generally find a responsive echo in the breast of 

 the human listener. 



The only other specimen of the Corvidas noticed was the Jack- 

 daw, — the remainder, such as the Carrion and Hooded Crows, 

 Magpies, &c., as well as the nobler Falconidas and Strigida;, being 

 apparently in the fair way to become extinct — thanks to the per- 

 petual persecution of gamekeepers and traj^pers, abetted by sports- 

 men, whose mania for game preservation is fast reducing the 

 numbers to a minimum, and at the same time depriving the natu- 

 ralist of the opportunity of studying the habits of birds of prey 

 from life, a circumstance to be regretted by all practical ornitho- 

 logists. The only Hawk observed was on the slope of Ben Vrackie, 

 a high mountain immediately behind the village. The species, so 

 far as could be detemiined from a distance, was that of the Sparrow- 

 Hawk, most likely a female from its size, and its sudden appear- 

 ance on the scene had the effect of silencing a Curlew or " Whaup," 

 who had been making the air ring for some time with her quivering 

 whistle of distress, engendered by the inadvertent intrusion on her 

 nesting-ground. In the same locality, which was just at the limit 

 wliere the few straggling thickets of Fir-trees ended and the bare 



