$220 Tur ZooLoGist—SEPTEMBER, 1872. 
on the same date I saw the old birds carrying food to their young, 
and could hear the young ones chirping. On Sandoe, by the 22nd 
May, I found young ones well feathered. Near Eide, Osteroe, I 
noticed them nesting in a colony in the rocks. 
38. Paslor roseus, Linn. Rosecoloured Pastor.—Observed at 
Kollefiord, in October, 1853; and again in Naalsoe, on the 19th 
September, 1855 {‘ Fxroernes Fuglefauna, p. 16). 
39. Corvus corax, Linn. Raven. Native name, Raynur.— 
Is abundant, but not as numerous as | expected it to be; the 
general possession of guns by the inhabitants, and the Nebbetold, 
or bill-tax on birds of prey, seems to have reduced their numbers. 
It is admitted now on all sides that the speckled and mottled 
ravens (C. leucopheus, Viellot), not unfrequently found in Feroe, 
is a variety, and not a good species. Svabo remarks that the 
raven is named Gorpur in the old Froese song about birds; and 
after it, mention is made of the whitebreasted raven; there- 
fore he thinks the mottled variety has been known from old 
times. Landt considered it a variety, and refers to speckled 
and pure black birds being found in the same brood. Wolley 
saw the black and white variety: two were shown to him 
alive, which came out of the same nest with purely black ones; he 
remarks that they had none of the characters of a species. Miiller 
is of the same opinion, and informs me that a pair of ravens, that 
nested near Saxen, not unfrequently had one of the young pied, 
but for two years following they were seen flying with four or five 
pure black young ones. I saw five or six ravens flying in com- 
pany at Sorvaag, and one of them had a white patch on the 
scapulars.* Nebbetold is of very ancient date: Debes calls it an 
agreement of old times, by which every man that enters into a 
boat is obliged to pay it. In the Lavething book, 1686, it is stated 
that the Sysselmen have not given satisfactory account of the tax. 
In 1707 the Sysselmen are warned to pay the arrears of this tax ; 
1723, the sheriff reminds the Sysselmen of this duty; whilst in 
1740, the inhabitants complain that the Sysselmen do not do their 
duty, and that the birds of prey increase. Upon this complaint the 
royal resolution to the sheriff, dated 21st November, 1741, was 
issued, which commands the Sysselmen to count all the men for 
* T received the bills of a raven’s brood, taken on the 38rd May, 1872, from a nest 
near Ore, island of Osteroe; one of the bills, with the bristles attached, was quite 
white. 
