RESPECT FOR NEIGHBOURS 95 



parent birds bringing as many as five rabbits 

 within an hour to their clamorous brood. As the 

 season gets on, the raven varies the diet of his 

 nurslings by giving them the eggs of the cormorant 

 or the seagull which he finds on the adjoining 

 ledges. He will spike them with his bill and carry 

 them off in triumph ; he will even, at times, enter the 

 burrow of the puffin, and a battle-royal will take place 

 for the possession of her eggs, beneath the surface 

 of the earth. The puffin is a small bird, but it is 

 armed with a huge razor-like bill which, if it does not 

 beat the intruder off, will at least give him a squeeze 

 which he will remember for a long time to come. 



All this on occasion ; but at other times a sort 

 of " truce of God " seems to be established between 

 the raven and his nearest neighbours. There is, 

 apparently, an honourable understanding between 

 them that, being his neighbours, they are free of 

 the guild ; and he will leave their eggs, exposed as 

 they are, quite unmolested, while he carries off those 

 which are more remote. In like manner, a hill fox in 

 Scotland will often leave the poultry and the geese 

 and the turkeys which are near his "earth " severely 

 alone, and will travel past them, for miles, by night, 

 to get others which he will have to carry toilfully 

 home. He wishes, no doubt from motives of self- 



