VERMIN 235 



their highest, he is still fairly common. But that has 

 not prevented him disappearing from, or getting 

 rarer in, many of his former haunts. 



The crows are, I am afraid, all thieves, from the 

 jackdaw to the raven; and most of them are 

 murderers as well. This is an indictment whose 

 strength can only be justified by its truth. 



The brightest and liveliest of the lot, and indeed 

 of all our native birds, are the jay, and the magpie. 

 Both have disappeared from many of their former 

 haunts, and are fast vanishing from the land. 

 Especially is this the case with the former. 



The jay is a woodland bird. There is no more 

 richly wooded part of Scotland than the neighbour- 

 hood of Birnam ; and yet, the appearance of a 

 pair, in a scene so altogether favourable, was 

 thought worthy of a paragraph in a newspaper. 

 Probably they would be shot. 



The hooded crow, and his cousin the carrion have 

 been well named the rats among birds. There is 

 simply no diabolical act of which they are incapable. 

 We shall meet them again elsewhere, but among 

 the mountains they steal eggs, and kill young birds ; 

 and, certainly, richly merit being kept under. 



The raven, an ominous, but a grand bird, though 

 present in the wilder parts of the Highlands, is 



