292 WILD SPORTS OF THE HIGHLANDS chap. 



the small insects which take refuge in the chinks and crevices 

 of the bark. The swallows, which catch their insect prey while 

 flying at speed in the air, are provided with large wide-opening 

 mouths, which enables them to capture the swiftest-flying moth 

 or midge. In fact, if we take the trouble to examine the manner 

 of feeding and the structure of the commonest birds, which we 

 pass over without observation in consequence of their want of 

 rarity, we see that the Providence that has made them has also 

 adapted each in the most perfect manner for acquiring with 

 facility the food on which it is designed to live. The owl, that 

 preys mostly on the quicfe-eared mouse, has its wings edged 

 with a kind of downy fringe, which makes its flight silent and 

 inaudible in the still evening air. Were its wings formed of the 

 same kind of plumage as those of most other birds, it is so slow 

 a flier that the mouse, warned by the rustling of its approach, 

 would escape long before it could pounce upon it. The heron 

 has also a quantity of downy plumage about its wings, which are 

 also of a very concave form, and the bird alights in the calm pool 

 without making a ripple, and whilst standing motionless, knee- 

 deep in the water, it is almost invisible in the gloom of evening, 

 owing to its grey shadowy colour. So also is the colour of the 

 wild duck, partridge, and other birds which hatch on the ground, 

 exactly similar in its shade to the dry foliage among which they 

 sit — insomuch so, that even when they are pointed out to one by 

 another person it is very difficult to distinguish these birds. 



How curiously quick is the instinct of birds in finding out 

 their food. Where peas or other favourite grain is sown, wood- 

 pigeons and tame pigeons immediately congregate. It is not 

 easy to ascertain from whence the f :Tmer come, but the house- 

 pigeons have often been known to arrive in numbers on a new- 

 sown field the very morning after the grain is laid down ; 

 although no pigeon-house from which they could come exists 

 within several miles of the place. 



Put down a handful or two of unthrashed oat straw, in 

 almost any situation near the sea-coast where there are wild 

 ducks, and they are sure to find it out the first or second night 

 after it has been left there. 



There are many almost incredible stories of the acuteness 

 of the raven's instinct in guiding it to the dead carcass of any 

 large animal, or even in leading it to the neighbourhood on the 



