Birds, 305 



of parts adapted for entering that element. 1 saw one pounce on a 

 leveret, and bear it in its claws from the side of its mother, who ran a 

 good way in a line below the course taken by the crow. Its wily life 

 seems spent in threading along the bottoms of the glens, and tracing 

 up their various adjuncts, looking intently and carefully into every 

 ravine seeking for sick or diseased animals, it matters not whether 

 they be wild or tame. 



They build in trees, selecting in preference an old disbranched fir, 

 an old thorn or birch, remnants of the ancient Caledonian forests, and 

 situated either in deep glens or on the open hill-side. But the tree and 

 the situation alike fail in giving security to the young, for it is very 

 seldom that the shepherd fails to discover them. The nest is con- 

 structed of the same materials, and has the same form as the raven's. 

 They feed their young with all kinds of animal substances they can 

 purloin from the farm-house, or collect from the face of Nature ; 

 among the rest the eggs of every wild fowl that comes to the hill to 

 breed, and if the nests have remained undiscovered, until the period 

 of incubation has passed, still the young are as acceptable as the 

 eggs, or even more so, for they are carried alive to the nest, in order 

 that their own young may learn to murder, lacerate and destroy ; and 

 I really think, if grouse are plentiful in the vicinity, that one pair of 

 crows, what with stealing the eggs and carrying off the young, will in 

 a season destroy more of these birds than the keenest sportsman that 

 takes to the muirs. Whatever the young reject as uneatable or indi- 

 gestible — as bones, hair, egg-shells, &c. — the old crows instinctively 

 carry to a considerable distance, but all to one spot, generally a little 

 knoll. It is very curious to light by chance on one of these reposi- 

 tories of spoil, consisting of mice-down and mice-heads, lambs' wool, 

 skin and bones, the egg-shells of every wild fowl that frequents our 

 deserts, and a still larger quantity of egg-shells of the domestic hen 

 and of the corn-crow [or rook]. In this country these last are gre- 

 garious, and feed only on corn or fruit, while the crow lives in pairs 

 and is decidedly carnivorous. 



Additional Note on the Raven. Very good naturalists inform us 

 that the raven exists in large flocks, in those almost interminable 

 regions which lie between the sources of the Mackenzie and Missouri 

 rivers, — and that when the wandering tribes, who ramble through 

 those pathless deserts, notice a flock of ravens hovering or wheeling- 

 above a certain space, it is a sure indication that an encampment of 

 their countrymen, well stored with animal food, occupies the ground 



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