240 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CH. XVII. 



sequence of my retriever having put up the old bird. 

 Frequently, afterwards, I saw her on her downy 

 nest, but one day both teal and eggs were gone ; 

 and when I went to the grassy hillock which the 

 crows used for a dining-table, there were the re- 

 mains of all the eight eggs. 



Poisoning with strychnia is by far the most effec- 

 tual way of destroying crows. If you put a piece 

 of carrion in a tree well seasoned with this power- 

 ful drug, the ground below it will soon be strewed 

 with the bodies of most of the crows in the neigh- 

 bourhood, so instantaneous is their death on 

 swallowing any of it. It seems almost immediately 

 to paralyze them, and they fall down on the spot. 



In the stagnant pools near the river Nairn there 

 are great numbers of that singular worm called by 

 the country people the hair-worm, from its exact 

 resemblance to a horsehair. In these pools there 

 are thousands of them twisting and turning about 

 like living hairs. The most singular thing regard- 

 ing them is, that if they are put for weeks in a 

 drawer or elsewhere, till they become as dry and 

 brittle as it is possible for anything to be, and to 

 all appearance perfectly dead and shrivelled up, yet 

 on being put into water they gradually come to life 

 again, and are as pliable and active as ever. The 

 country people are firmly of opinion that they are 



