240 FIELD-NOTES FOR THE YEAR. CII, XVII. 



of my retriever having put up the old bird. Fre- 

 quently afterwards I saw her on her downy nest, 

 but one day both teal and eggs were gone ; and 

 when I went to the grassy liillock which the crows 

 used for a dining-table, there were the remains of 

 all the eight eggs. 



Poisoning with strychnia is by far the most effec- 

 tual way of destroying crows. If you put a piece 

 of carrion in a tree well seasoned with this powerful 

 drug, the ground below it will soon be strewed with 

 the bodies of most of the crows in the neighbour- 

 hood, so instantaneous is their death on swallowing 

 any of it. It seems almost immediately to paralyze 

 them, and they fall down on the spot. 



In the stagnant pools near the river Nairn there 

 are great numbers of that singular worm called by 

 the country people the hair-worm, from its exact 

 resemblance to a horsehair. In these pools there 

 are thousands of them, twisting and turning about 

 like living hairs. The most singular thing regard- 

 ing them is that if they are put for weeks in a 

 drawer or elsewhere, till they become as dry and 

 brittle as it is possible for anything to be, and to 

 all appearance perfectly dead and shrivelled up, yet 

 on being put into water they gradually come to life 

 again, and are as pliable and active as ever. The 

 country people are firmly of opinion that they are 



