6636 



Birds. 



Wending his way up the river, pursued by these two, which teased 

 him very much, and made several unsuccessful attempts to snatch the 

 fish from his mouth, he passed over the bridge and alighted on an 

 embankment a little above it, the two hoodies taking up their position 

 at the distance of a few yards. The heron stood quite erect, and, 

 after having for a few minutes eyed his two attendants with a haughty 

 look, dropped the fluke, which he had hitherto held in his mouth, on 

 the grass, and, with a significant nod of his head, turned and bowed 

 to the hoodies, which was tantamount to saying, "Come and take it 

 now, ye black rogues." The invitation not being accepted, craigie 

 thought it proper to take it up again himself, and after a good deal of 

 labour and not a little difficulty, caused by the breadth of the fish, he 

 succeeded in putting it into his stomach, when he again took to wing, 

 and was hotly pursued by the hoodies, which pecked at him more 

 furiously than before. But, as bad luck would have it, a keeper, 

 chancing to pass that way at the time, soon put an end to the 

 squabble by shooting one of the crows, the other sneaking off when 

 he saw his companion fall. 



Reclining on the beach, one afternoon, near to where the burn of 

 Boyndie falls into the sea, admiring the manners, but more particu- 

 larly the tameness of a flock of sanderlings, the greater number of 

 which were chasing each other to and fro in seeming sportive play, 

 and uttering their merry notes of "peak, peak, peakie chur;" while 

 others were enjoying themselves bathing in a shallow pool which 

 had been left in a hollow of the sand by the previous tide, the 

 remainder being employed probing with their bills the soft sand 

 round the margin of the pool, in search of marine insects ; — a gun 

 was fired by some person close by, which had the effect of raising, 

 from the rocks in my vicinity, amongst other birds, a heron and 

 several carrion and hooded crows. The heron winged his flight, and 

 was closely pursued by three of the crows, in the direction of the 

 rocks situated a little below the "Red Well," and made as if he would 

 have alighted on them, but from some cause or other he did not do 

 so. Turning abruptly round, he came back nearly in the same path, 

 and, passing over the rock he had first left, bent his course eastward, 

 pursued now only by one crow, which pecked at him with such fury 

 that he kept him screaming almost without intermission. Having my 

 attention withdrawn for a few minutes, 1 was surprised, on again 

 looking towards them, at finding that the progress of both had been 

 suddenly arrested, being still only a short way off. The crow was 

 attempting to pick something out of the sea, whilst the heron was 



