228 RAVENS. 



usually do in returning to their rookery; and about 

 a week afterwards, twenty- six were observed by the 

 same party flying to the southward. There is reason, 

 however, to believe that these assemblages of Ravens 

 ought not to be admitted as proofs of their being, 

 under any circumstances or seasons of the year, really 

 gregarious; that is, naturally disposed to associate in 

 flocks, but is rather to be attributed to the attraction 

 of distant food, which, if beyond the reach of vision, 

 they can, by some unknown faculty, discover at great 

 distances. It can scarcely be by scent, for in those 

 northern regions, when all is calm and quiet, and 

 the severity of frost rapidly destroys all the effluvia 

 of dead matter, still troops of Ravens, within an in- 

 credibly short time after the slaughter of an animal, 

 will be seen advancing from all points to this common 

 centre of attraction, like the Yultures of which we 

 have before spoken, though, at the time, not a single 

 bird was to be seen on the wing. This sagacity in 

 discovering their prey is, indeed, too well known in 

 some less-favoured spots, where food is scarce for man 

 as well as beast or bird, and the Raven's presence is 

 looked upon as a perfect nuisance. Thus, in the -He- 

 brides, Shetland, Feroe Islands, and Iceland, they are 

 sadly destructive. Nothing escapes them; they watch 

 the Wild Duck to her nest, and drive her from her 

 eggs; they pounce upon fish like the Fishing Hawks; 

 they attack the ewe as well as the lamb, and fixing 

 on a galled horse, feed on his flesh even while living. 

 It is not, therefore, surprising, that laws are made for 

 their extirpation. Accordingly, in the Feroe Islands, 

 every man who is in a condition to catch fish, must 

 deliver, annually, the bill of one Raven, or those of 



