534 BRITISH BIRDS. 
their nesting-place some large tree, to which they had retired to breed 
time out of mind. 
Dixon thus describes the Raven’s habits in Skye:—“‘Next to the 
Crows the Raven is certainly the commonest predaceous bird one meets 
ou these bare and sterile shores. You may see him on the large sheep- 
farms beating about and prying into every hole and corner in search of 
food. Should a lamb fall sick, or a sheep in browsing too near the edge 
of the cliff lose its footing and be dashed to pieces on the rocks below, the 
Raven is perhaps the first bird to discover the prize—the first either, on 
the one hand, to go and torture the poor creature until death mercifully 
relieves its sufferings, or, on the other, the first to speed in gluttonous 
haste and tear out the favourite morsels from the still warm and mangled 
carcass. He is everywhere. Nothing escapes his prying vision. Ever 
on the alert, too, you cannot approach him within gunshot, and he lazily 
flaps away, bearing with him too often the curses of the shepherd. See 
him on the ‘storr’ yonder, croaking dismally to his mate. Something 
has aroused them! It is a Peregrine speeding to her nest on the cliffs of 
Talliska ; and the quarrelsome sable thieves sally out to resent her intru- 
sion. But the Falcon is too busy with her own affairs, and beyond a sharp 
bark of anger and a quick swerve to the right she heeds them not. Now 
watch them both circling gracefully in mid air, their rich plumage shining 
brilliantly inthe sun. There is a dead sheep in yonder field, decaying and 
putrid ; and thither they betake themselves. But, ever wary and cunning, 
notice how they wheel above it, scrutinizing it closely, as if fearful that it 
may contain some ambuscade ; and finally they alight some little distance 
away to bound forward in heavy leaps, assisted by their wings, to the 
tempting feast. A Herring-Gull now appears upon the scene; but the 
Ravens will admit of no such intrusion, and it is beaten off. See how 
they tear out the entrails; observe with what seeming savage haste they 
tug at the flesh, as though fearful every moment of being surprised at 
their work. You approach them a little nearer, the better to observe 
them, and with a croak of displeasure they are off in slow laboured flight 
to the rocks whence they came a short half-hour before. Then, again, on 
these treacherous coasts many is the lamb that meets a watery grave, and 
when thrown up by the waves makes a meal for the Raven. Observe him 
out yonder a few yards from shore followmg the devious windings of the 
coast, and searching closely for any garbage that may be cast up, ever and 
anon being mobbed by the small Gulls and Terns whose plumage shines so 
pure and brilliant against bis own sable dress. In fact, wherever you may 
wander in these out-of-the-way solitudes the Raven will almost invariably 
turn up, unexpectedly it may be; but still he is there to croak at your in- 
trusion, to engage you with his droll antics and cunning ways, or to cause 
you no small amount of disgust as he, mayhap, rises half stupefied before 
