200 RAVENS. 



their being, under any circumstances or seasons of the 

 year, really gregarious; that is, naturally disposed to 

 associate in flocks, but is rather to be attributed to the 

 attraction of distant food which, if beyond the reach of 

 vision, they can by some unknown faculty discover at 

 great distances. It can scarcely be by scent, for in 

 those northern regions when all is calm and quiet, and 

 the severity of frost rapidly destroys all the effluvia of 

 dead matter, still troops of Ravens within an incredibly 

 short time after the slaughter of an animal, will be seen 

 advancing from all points to this common centre of 

 attraction, like the Vultures of which we have before 

 spoken, though at the time not a single bird was to be 

 seen on the wing. This sagacity in discovering their 

 prey is indeed too well known in some less-favoured 

 spots, where food is scarce for man, as well as beast or 

 bird, and the Raven's presence is looked upon as a 

 perfect nuisance. Thus in the Hebrides, Shetland, 

 Feroe Islands, and Iceland, they are sadly destructive. 

 Nothing escapes them; they watch the Wild Duck to 

 her nest, and drive her from her eggs; they pounce upon 

 fish like the Fishing Hawks; they attack the ewe as well 

 as the lamb, and fixing on a galled horse, feed on his 

 flesh even while living. It is not therefore surprising, 

 that laws are made for their extirpation. Accordingly 

 in the Feroe Islands every man who is in a condition to 

 catch fish, must deliver annually the bill of one Raven, 

 or those of two Crows, or in failure thereof, must pay a 

 certain sum to the provincial judge, that these destruc- 

 tive birds may be exterminated. Besides its human 

 enemies, it has, in those islands, other very formidable 

 ones of its own order, in the shape of certain sea-birds, 

 called the Oyster-catcher (Hcematopus ostralegus), or Sea- 

 pie, and the Puffins, or Sea-parrots. The former follows 

 it in its rapid flight, and darting its long sharp bill into 

 its back, makes it scream out, and then by a shrill cry, 

 collects several more of its own species, which unite in 

 pursuing the persecuted Raven, and oblige it to seek 



