BIKD LIFE IN COLONSAY 55 



certainty. I often saw the Great Northern diver, 

 which is pretty common everywhere on the west coast 

 of Scotland. 



The crow tribe were well represented, ravens were 

 numerous, and there were nearly always a pair of these 

 birds on the shore of one or other of the bays by the 

 golf links at Machrins, feeding on some of the refuse 

 washed up by the tide. I do not know whether they 

 care for jelly-fish, but there were occasions when these 

 were washed up in such abundance as to create a 

 nuisance. In a strong westerly gale I have seen the 

 shore covered with them to the depth of some inches, 

 and decomposing into a slippery and evil -smelling slime. 

 I confess to an affection for the bird of ill omen, and 

 if ravens had brought me ill-luck every time I have 

 seen them or heard their unmistakable bark, I hardly 

 think that I should be alive now to tell the tale. I 

 would far rather wage war with the ubiquitous and 

 mischievous jackdaws than with these grand and 

 picturesque birds. Often I came quite close upon 

 them as I rounded some knoll or rock, and could dis- 

 tinguish their broad wings and strong spadelike beak 

 as they flapped lazily away. They seemed to be par- 

 ticularly obnoxious to the pair of peregrine falcons 

 which haunted the cairn on the summit of the hill at 

 the back. I have frequently seen the falcon pursuing 

 one or other of the ravens for quite a long distance, 

 not swooping down upon him from on high with deadly 

 intentions, but flying behind or beside him at a distance 

 of some ten yards, and from time to time making short 

 and ineffectual "dabs" towards him. Each time the 

 raven would turn his beak towards him like the bayonet 

 of a foot soldier prepared to receive cavalry, and the 



