Birds. 367 



the present list, had not my friend Professor Macgillivray enumerated 

 grain as being an article of its diet, in his excellent work on British 

 Birds (i. 532). It joins the rook and other friendly birds in searching 

 after the insect foes of the farmer ; but with us its chief subsistence is 

 obtained on the sea-shore. 



The Carrion Crow haunts our fields in pairs throughout the latter 

 months of autumn and winter, until the return of sweet spring recalls 

 him and his dark mate to the upland plantations and hill-sides, where 

 they rear their young in comparative safety. On returning from their 

 summer quarters, they add grain to their bill of fare. I accuse them 

 of occasionally digging up the winter-sown wheat, but whether to 

 partake of larvae or the germinated grain, I cannot tell. Almost every 

 spring a pair or two attend pretty closely upon our flocks during the 

 lambing season; and although I have ever looked upon them with 

 suspicion, since reading Mr. Hogg of Stobohope's interesting account 

 of the severe losses they inflict upon the Peebles-shire store -masters, 

 (see Macgillivray's * British Birds,' i. 521), yet I have not been able 

 to bring any charge of murdering ewes and lambs against them, nor 

 am I aware that our hill shepherds bear them any grudge on this 

 score. They are great favourites of mine, and I really wish they were 

 more numerous, for the Laird and his keeper are w^ell able to fight 

 their own battles. No one who has ever marked his noble mien — his 

 courteous bowings to his mate before making the woods ring out with 

 his joyous cawings, can resist admiring the bird around whose life 

 and conversation prejudice and ignorance have thrown a dark cloud. 



The Jackdaw. No jackdaws haunt the ruined piles in the neigh- 

 bourhood of this farm ; nor do they visit our fields in any considerable 

 numbers. In company with the rooks I have observed them pulling 

 up young wheat, barley and oats, and plundering the stacks in sum- 

 mer and the corn-fields in autumn. I have never seen the jackdaw 

 digging potato-sets, and upon the whole I consider him a useful bird, 

 and wish 1 were better acquainted with his habits. 



The Rook. During open weather in winter, the rook subsists upon 

 such insect food as the plough turns up, or can be found in pastures 

 and beneath the droppings of cattle ; but when hard weather comes, 

 he haunts the stack-yard, and gleans nutritious particles along the 

 roads, and from the dung-hills which the provident farmer now forms 

 in his fields for next year's green crops. The famished birds congre- 



