184 
RAVENS. 
on the wing. This sagacity in discovering their prey is in- ! 
deed too well known in some less-favoured spots, where food 
is scarce for man, as well as beast or bird, and the Raven’s 
presence is looked upon as a perfect nuisance. Thus in the 
Hebrides, Shetland, Feroe Islands, and Iceland, they are 
sadly destructive. Nothing escapes them ; they watch the 
Wild Duck to her nest, and drive her from her eggs ; they 
pounce upon fish like Fishing Hawks ; they attack the ewe 
as well as the lamb, and fixing on a galled horse, feed on his 
flesh even while living. It is not therefore surprising, that 
laws are made for their extirpation. Accordingly, in the 
Feroe Islands every man who is in a condition to catch fish, 
must deliver annually the hill of one Raven, or those of two 
Crows, or in failure thereof, must pay a certain sum to the 
provincial judge, that these destructive birds may be exter- 
minated. Besides its human enemies, it has, in those islands, 
other very forminable ones of its own order, in the shape of 
certain sea-birds, called the Oyster- catcher ( Hcematopus 
ostralegus), or Sea-pie, and the Puffins, or Sea-parrots. The 
former follows it in its rapid flight, and darting its long sharp 
hill into its hack, makes it scream out, and then by a shrill 
cry, collects several more of its own species, which unite in 
pursuing the persecuted Raven, and oblige it to seek shelter 
in holes amongst the rocks, where its hack can be protected. 
The Puffin acts rather in self-defence, for the Raven is the 
aggressor, attacking the Puffins for the purpose of eating 
their eggs, of which the Ravens are remarkably fond; in 
this case a desperate fight ensues ; for the Raven usually 
takes an opportunity of committing the theft when the 
Puffins are at sea in search of food, and he can without oppo- 
sition enter the holes or burrows in which the Puffins breed ; 
but should the latter catch the robber in the hole on returning, 
it darts its claws into its breast, seizes him by the neck with 
its strong, razor-formed bill, and as soon as they issue from 
the hole, struggling with each other, the Raven endeavours 
to ascend to the land, while the Puffin, on the contrary, does 
its best to descend to the water ; and if it succeeds, it be- 
comes for the most part the conqueror, for when the Raven’s 
