148 
BIRDS. 
Besides these, there must be, probably, half as many more 
killed for which no premiums are paid. Appears to be 
well kept down in the Durness district. 
Very common, and resident. Was increasing in numbers in 
1867; now, of course, killed down on every possible occa- 
sion. According to Mr. Osborne, it was formerly a rarer bird 
than the raven (0. MSS., 1868). At present in 1885, and 
during the breeding season, certainly a rare bird all along 
the coast-lines. Though Harvie-Brown walked a large part 
of the Caithness west and east coast-lines, he only saw in 
all two pairs of Hooded crows, so surely and relentlessly do 
the keepers eradicate them : and even as ornithologists, we 
can say but little in their praise. The place of those killed 
does not appear to be taken up by others from abroad, and 
the "hoodie" is rare on migration on tlie Caithness coasts. 
(See statistics of vermin in Appendix.) 
130. Corvus frugilegus, L. Rook. 
Resident, abundant, and rapidly increasing in the east. A few 
pairs of these birds used to breed in some very low trees 
near Balnacoil : these, however, have lately been cut down. 
A solitary pair of rooks built in a birch-tree in a small wood 
near the same place. To the west, the only rookery we are 
aware of is at Cama Loch, in low birch-trees. In corrobora- 
tion of a surmise that they would spread to the wooded 
shores of Loch Beannoch, near Loch Inver, and there 
endeavour to displace the herons, in 1877 they did appear 
and began to build ; but the keeper, who told us of the fact, 
shot them down promptly, and they have not since renewed 
the attempt. FJocks occasionally crowd the trees round 
the manse at Inchnadamph, but no attempts have as yet 
been made at building there. 
Eooks have established themselves at the following 
localities, and the notes appended are the results of an 
inquiry we began in 1879, according to a circular sent 
throughout Scotland : — 
