474 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



splendour was but heightened by the opportune and lone- 

 some flight of the savage bird, the spell was partly broken, for, 

 pealing up from the abyss, but modulated by distance, and 

 echo-like, came the iron voice of the raven. Far, far down the 

 dizzy chasm, timing their wings to their croak, the parent birds 

 seemed scenting prey in the distance, and were guiding their 

 three young ones to the mid-day meal. 



The birds and beasts of prey in Mull are scarce, with the 

 exception of Eoyston crows. I have seen and destroyed a few 

 stoats, but have never yet detected a weasel, or noticed their 

 footmarks on the snow. When snow is on the ground, how- 

 ever, they live much underneath it, among the rough grass, 

 where they find abundance of mice, &c. I once saw a weasel 

 bore through half a foot of snow to the ground below ; it soon 

 reappeared, making a fresh hole, but on seeing me slunk back 

 again. I inspected the holes it had made, and they were so 

 small as scarcely to admit my finger. No doubt it had a 

 plentiful table, as well as a comfortable shelter from the blast, 

 the warm coating of snow forming a roof as serviceable to the 

 large family of rats and mice as to their destroyer. There are 

 neither foxes, wild-cats, martens, nor foumarts on the island 

 at least I have never seen or heard of them. When ranging 

 the hills of my own shooting-ground, I have frequently started 

 the erne, but only once the golden eagle. A few pairs of the 

 former breed annually among the inaccessible cliffs of the 

 western side of the island, and there is often an eyrie of the 

 golden eagle on the cliffs of Morven, but I rather think no 

 young ones of this species are hatched in Mull. The absence 

 of blue hares, their favourite prey, may partly account for it. 



Lambs and red-deer calves are safe from eagles, unless on 

 steep hills, where they can throw themselves into the air with 

 their heavy burden. On flat ground, instinct warns the eagle 

 not to attempt what she cannot accomplish. In summer, when 

 food is plentiful, eagles eat a little every day, without filling 

 the crop. It is only in winter that they gorge themselves on 



