184 RAVENS* 



on the wing. This sagacity in discovering their prey is in- 

 deed 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 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 destructive birds may be exter- 

 minated. Besides its human enemies, it has, in those islands, 

 other very forminable 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 shelter 

 in holes amongst the rocks, where its back can be protected. 

 The Puffin acts rather in self -defence, for the Raven is the 

 aggressor, attacking the Puffins for the purpose of eating 

 their eggs, of which the Ravens are remarkably fond; in 

 this case a desperate fight ensues ; for the Raven usually 

 takes an opportunity of committing the theft when the 

 Puffins are at sea in search of food, and he can without oppo- 

 sition enter the holes or burrows in which the Puffins breed ; 

 but should the latter catch the robber in the hole on returning, 

 it darts its claws into its breast, seizes him by the neck with 

 its strong, razor-formed bill, and as soon as they issue from 

 the hole, struggling with each other, the Raven endeavours 

 to ascend to the land, while the Puffin, on the contrary, does 

 its best to descend to the water ; and if it succeeds, it be- 

 comes for the most part the conqueror, for when the Raven's 



