534 BRITISH BIRDS. 



their nesting-place some large tree, to which they had retired to breed 

 time out of mind. 



Dixon thus describes the Raven's habits in Skye : " Next to the 

 Crows the Raven is certainly the commonest predaceous bird one meets 

 on these bare and sterile shores. You may see him on the large sheep- 

 farms beating about and prying into every hole and corner in search of 

 food. Should a lamb fall sick, or a sheep in browsing too near the edge 

 of the cliff lose its footing and be dashed to pieces on the rocks below, the 

 Raven is perhaps the first bird to discover the prize the first either, on 

 the one hand, to go and torture the poor creature until death mercifully 

 relieves its sufferings, or, on the other, the first to speed in gluttonous 

 haste and tear out the favourite morsels from the still warm and mangled 

 carcass. He is everywhere. Nothing escapes his prying vision. Ever 

 on the alert, too, you cannot approach him within gunshot, and he lazily 

 flaps away, bearing with him too often the curses of the shepherd. See 

 him on the ' storr ' yonder, croaking dismally to his mate. Something 

 has aroused them ! It is a Peregrine speeding to her nest on the cliffs of 

 Talliska ; and the quarrelsome sable thieves sally out to resent her intru- 

 sion. But the Falcon is too busy with her own affairs, and beyond a sharp 

 bark of anger and a quick swerve to the right she heeds them not. Now 

 watch them both circling gracefully in mid air, their rich plumage shining 

 brilliantly in the sun. There is a dead sheep in yonder field, decaying and 

 putrid ; and thither they betake themselves. But, ever wary and cunning, 

 notice how they wheel above it, scrutinizing it closely, as if fearful that it 

 may contain some ambuscade ; and finally they alight some little distance 

 away to bound forward in heavy leaps, assisted by their wings, to the 

 tempting feast. A Herring-Gull now appears upon the scene ; but the 

 Ravens will admit of no such intrusion, and it is beaten off. See how 

 they tear out the entrails ; observe with what seeming savage haste they 

 tug at the flesh, as though fearful every moment of being surprised at 

 their work. You approach them a little nearer, the better to observe 

 them, and with a croak of displeasure they are off in slow laboured flight 

 to the rocks whence they came a short half-hour before. Then, again, on 

 these treacherous coasts many is the lamb that meets a watery grave, and 

 when thrown up by the waves makes a meal for the Raven. Observe him 

 out yonder a few yards from shore following the devious windings of the 

 coast, and searching closely for any garbage that may be cast up, ever and 

 anon being mobbed by the small Gulls and Terns whose plumage shines so 

 pure and brilliant against his own sable dress. In fact, wherever you may 

 wander in these out-of-the-way solitudes the Raven will almost invariably 

 turn up, unexpectedly it may be \ but still he is there to croak at your in- 

 trusion, to engage you with his droll antics and cunning ways, or to cause 

 you no small amount of disgust as he, mayhap, rises half stupefied before 



