MARCH. CROWS BADGERS ROOKS. 195 



and turned it into a small enclosure, where it 

 amused us much by its tameness and confidence, 

 beginning to eat worms and porridge immediately, 

 and seeming to enjoy itself in this new situation as 

 much as if it had been always accustomed to it. 



There are no enemies so destructive to the wild- 

 fowl as the carrion or rather the hooded crow, which 

 is the kind we have here. Eggs and young birds 

 all come alike to these robbers, but the keeper at 

 Spynie manages to kill great numbers of them by 

 poison; he uses strychnia, a very small quantity of 

 which kills the crow on the spot. 



The badgers hunt more and more every day at 

 this season if the weather is open, and apparently 

 they wander several miles from their home. 



On the 2d of March I see the rooks building. 

 There is much snow on the mountains, but the low 

 country is quite clear. 



The principal wild-fowl on Loch Spynie, Loch 

 Lee, etc., just now, are mallards, sheldrakes, 

 widgeons, teals, pintails, scaup ducks, pochards, 

 golden eyes, a few swans, bald coots and waterhens, 

 besides an infinity of gulls, redshanks, plovers, 

 peewits, curlews, etc. They all keep up a constant 

 calling and noise, in the morning and evening par- 

 ticularly. All the- ducks, though collected in flocks, 

 still keep in pairs, so that when a large flock is on 



