GROUSE AND ' SCAUL CROWS.' 207 



either by the same birds or their descendants, and 

 no rival stronghold had been established on the 

 cliffs ; even the fox had not materially increased 

 as I learned from the best authority, the wives 

 of the poor squatters who were quartered on the 

 outskirts of this wild region, and whose whole 

 wealth consisted of their pig and their poultry 

 but the grouse were sadly reduced ; in fact they 

 had almost disappeared, and in their place vast 

 numbers of the hooded crow were scattered over 

 the face of the country. Not a turf-stack or pro- 

 jecting rock but was occupied by groups of these 

 banditti-looking birds, not a clod or tussock even 

 partially elevated above the heath but one of 

 them was perched on the summit ; vigilant, wary, 

 and shy, as if ever on the watch to escape the 

 punishment due to his misdeeds. With his nest 

 securely lodged on the inaccessible shelves of the 

 precipices, he laughs at open warfare, and it is 

 only by stratagem that man can be a match for 

 him. In former times you might have traversed 

 these mountains for an entire day without seeing 

 a dozen ' scaul crows ; ' the trap, artfully set in . 

 the mock nest of a grouse and baited with the egg 

 of a gull or any other bird, was an infallible de- 

 vice ; or the shell, emptied of its contents, and 

 filled with melted fat and nux vomica was too 

 strong a temptation to be resisted, and thus the 



