80 TOUR IN SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



68. The Cornish Chough, or Red-legged Crow, is rare. It 

 fixes upon the most lofty and steep precipices for its abode. 

 I saw it near Durness. 



69. The Raven manages, notwithstanding the constant 

 war waged against him, to keep his ground, and to continue 

 tolerably numerous. I constantly see a pair or more of 

 them playing grotesque antics, and uttering varied and 

 strange cries upon some isolated rock on the mountain side, 

 from which they can have a good view of any approaching 

 enemy. Their chief location is, however, along the sea-shore, 

 and about the rocky islands, where they can get a good 

 supply of dead fish, seals, &c. 



70. The Carrion Crow is rare ; but, 



71. The Hooded Crow is numerous everywhere, in spite of 

 traps and guns. Wary and strong, they manage to evade all 

 attempts at their extirpation, and to keep up their indis- 

 criminate and wholesale destruction of eggs of every kind. 

 I consider the hooded crow to be the 'greatest enemy to game, 

 and indeed to all other birds, that we have. I have seen a 

 black crow and hooded crow nesting together. 



72. The Rook is as common in Sutherland as in any other 

 part of the kingdom, repaying by its destruction of grubs 

 and noxious insects the mischief it does to grain. 



73. The Jackdaw is numerous, building both in rocks and 

 chimneys, as its convenience or fancy happens to lead it. 



74. The Magpie is a common inhabitant of all the woody 

 districts. 



75. That singular little bird the Wryneck has been killed 

 but rarely in Sutherlandshire. 



76. The Common Tree-Creeper is everywhere in abundance 

 where there is wood. 



77. The Cuckoo is in great abundance during the spring 

 and summer, more particularly on the rocky and wild hill- 

 sides, where there are frequent patches of birch and other 

 underwood. I heard it at Tongue, and everywhere to the 

 south of that place. 



78. The Kingfisher is a rare but occasional visitor : it does 

 not breed in Sutherlandshire. 



79. The Chimney Swallow is common. 



80. The Swift, according to its universal habit, wheels and 

 screams as diligently round Dornoch Cathedral and other 

 lofty buildings in Sutherland, as it does round the spire of a. 

 village church in England. 



