178 BIRDS OF THE WEST OF SCOTLAND. 



their nests are veiy abundant, though the birds are not then so 

 numerous; many of those who only sought the shore through 

 winter retire elsewhere to breed. The nests are generally easily 

 accessible, and the birds are very persistent in replacing the eggs 

 if taken, and rebuilding the nest if destroyed. I have tried the 

 experiment of putting bantam's eggs, daubed with indigo, in the 

 place of the crow's own eggs, and have removed the newly-hatched 

 chickens before the foster-mother discovered her mistake. This, 

 of course, implies a good deal of intrusion and watching, which the 

 old bird did not in the least mind; indeed, though the hoodie has 

 plenty of cunning, he has not a particle of shyness or modesty. 

 On one of the first five days of March the hoodie crow may be 

 heard uttering his love-note. He is not a bad-looking fellow then, 

 in his ash-coloured jerkin, with jet black sleeves, hood, and tail. 

 He sits perched on some high rock, basking in the sun, his stomach 

 no doubt well filled, the very picture of a sweet unctuous rogue, 

 and then he emits a call with something of a metallic ring in it which 

 sounds like corrack-corrack, much more jubilant than his usual dull 

 caw. Indeed, the sound is so associated in my mind with a bright 

 sun, a smiling blue sea, and the first burst of spring, that were I 

 a poet I should feel inspired to address an ode to the hoodie crow 

 as the Hebridean herald of spring time. When he utters this 

 vernal note he half opens his wings, and expands his tail after the 

 fashion of the cuckoo. In a word (as love is said to transform the 

 savage), at this moment the hoodie may be almost called a 

 handsome bird. One of our most amusing pets was a hoodie 

 crow whose wing was amputated at the pinion after being shot, 

 and who lived a long time in the garden, where he laboured most 

 assiduously in destroying every kind of grub and vermin; if any 

 one opened the garden gate, he would come forward with a hop, 

 step, and jump, and looking up with one goblin eye which seemed 

 to say, ' Well, what have you brought for poor old hoodie V he 

 seemed to feel himself as one of the family. The Gaelic name 

 of the bird is Feannag, which means to skin or flay." 



The following Morayshire proverb shows that in by-gone times 

 the hooded crow was much commoner in that part of Scotland 

 than it is now: 



" The Guil, the Gordon, and the Hooded Craw, 

 Were the three worst things Murray ever saw." 



The gule is a well-known weed infesting growing crops, and Lord 



