68 ANNALS OF BIRD LIFE. 



thieves and rascals ! almost allow us to get 

 within gunshot before they fly reluctantly away, 

 to settle a little distance off to watch our move- 

 ments. These Hooded Crows are nesting in the 

 glen. The big, bulky home of one pair is made 

 in a stunted thorn-bush on the hillside, where 

 every passer-by can see it, and where we can 

 almost reach the contents without climbing at all. 

 The female has only just commenced laying : a 

 solitary egg, in form and colour exactly like those 

 of the Rook, is all that the nest contains. This 

 nest is an exceptionally early one, for the Hooded 

 Crow is, for a mountain bird, rather a late breeder, 

 and its laying-time does not begin, as a rule, until 

 the first or second week in April. The Carrion 

 Crow is a week or more later still. Both these 

 birds, like the Raven, return to breed in the old 

 nest, season after season, even in the face of much 

 persecution and disturbance. The nest of each 

 species very closely resembles that of the Rook. 

 From the cold, gray waters of the loch among 

 the hills, the Diver's wild, unearthly scream 

 sounds startling and clear. The fisher Osprey 

 has not yet arrived from his winter haunts in 

 South Europe and the basin of the Mediterranean ; 

 but pairs of Wild Ducks are paddling about the 

 shallows, and their love- notes are borne by the 

 breeze across the water. Where the hills fall 

 sheer down in precipices to the sea -lochs, the 

 White-tailed Eagle is breeding, making its eyrie in 

 the steepest parts of the rocks. Almost any hour 



