132 BIRD WATCHING 



be possible for them to do so. In most cases every- 

 thing necessary for sanitation or convenience could 

 be effected afterwards by the parent birds, but 

 this would not be the case with ravens and cor- 

 morants, or with other such carnivorous or iish- 

 eating species. Perhaps, therefore, the power which 

 I speak of may stand in joint relation to the diet 

 and habits of the bird, and the kind of nest which 

 it builds. 



I made many attempts to witness the feeding of 

 these young ravens by their parents, but owing to 

 there being no kind of cover from which I could 

 watch, and no means of erecting a proper shelter, 

 I was unable to do so. I did what I could by means 

 of pieces of turf, and a plaid or waterproof stretched 

 over them, but this was not sufficient to allay the 

 suspicions of the old birds, who had always seen me 

 as I came up, and from my first appearance over 

 the brow of the hill flew around croaking and croaking, 

 awaiting impatiently the moment of my departure. 

 It would have been difficult not to sympathise with 

 them, not to feel like an intruding vulgarian amidst 

 that lonely wildness. For my part, I never tried 

 not to, but yielded at once to the feeling, and retired 

 each time with the humiliating reflection that the 

 scene would be the better without me. Yet it seems 

 strange that in any scene of natural beauty or 

 grandeur, the one figure — should it happen to be 

 there — that has the capacity to feel it is just the one 

 that puts it out. Scott, for instance — though he were 

 Scott — would not have improved any Highland bit, 

 and Shakespeare's Cliff would hardly have looked the 

 better for the presence even of Shakespeare himself 



