PASSION FOR SOLITUDE 99 



the raven. He was probably describing what he 

 had himself often seen in Sweden ; and one of the 

 names by which the raven or corbie crow is known 

 in the Highlands, "biadhtach," is said to have much 

 the same meaning.^ 



If a whale be thrown ashore, the good news 

 spreads, no one quite knows how, along 



" Island and promontory, creek and bay," 



throughout the Hebrides. The raven is, in no 

 sense of the word, gregarious ; on the contrary, he 

 has a passion for solitude. He will tolerate no 

 rival, not even his own offspring, in the neighbour- 

 hood of his ancestral throne. He drives them 

 ruthlessly away, as soon as they are able to shift for 

 themselves. But, on an occasion like this, his 

 voracity overpowers his wish to be alone. Other 

 ravens drop in by twos and threes till they have 

 been counted by hundreds. There they take up 

 their abode, for weeks and even months, till the huge 

 carcase has been picked clean. On one occasion, 

 the inhabitants of a small island feared that the 

 prolonged stay of the ravens might end in an attack 

 on the barley crop which was soon to ripen and to 

 supply their illicit whisky stills. Something must 



* Macgillivray's British Birds, i. 498 seq. 



