JUNE. HOODED CROWS. 239 



two hundred yards of line with strong hooks at in- 

 tervals of four or five yards, I set it, as far as it 

 would reach, across one part of the largest lake, 

 baiting the hooks with small trout and worms. The 

 next morning on examining the line I found a great 

 number of large eels on the hooks, several of them 

 weighing above four pounds each. Although I 

 frequently afterwards put in the line, I never caught 

 any fish excepting eels, but of these a vast number. 

 This proves how favourite a food of the otter eels 

 must be, as these animals appear to live constantly 

 at the loch, where they could have found nothing 

 else to prey upon. A highland loch without trout 

 is, however, a rare thing, as they are almost in- 

 variably well stocked with them. 



There are one or two grassy hillocks near these 

 lakes to which those mischievous robbers, the hooded 

 crows, bring the eggs which they have pilfered in 

 order to eat them at their leisure ; and until I ad- 

 ministered a dose of strychnia, I never passed these 

 places without finding the fresh remains of eggs : 

 partridges, plovers, snipes, redshanks, wood-pigeon, 

 ducks, and teal, all seemed to have contributed to 

 support these ravenous birds. There was a nest of 

 a teal with eight eggs in a small thicket of heather, 

 in a situation apparently secure from all risk of 

 being discovered. I only knew of it in consequence 



