DESOLATE ASPECT OF HEBRIDIAN GLENS 175 
without offering them any molestation. They 
clung to the twigs in all sorts of positions, and 
went through the operation of feeding in a quiet 
and business-like manner, each attending to his 
own affairs without interfering with his neighbours. 
It was indeed a pleasant sight to see how the little 
creatures fluttered among the twigs, all in continued 
action, like so many bees on a cluster of flowers in 
sunshine after rain. Their brilliant colours, so 
much more gaudy than those of our common birds, 
seemed to convert the rude scenery around into 
that of some far distant land, where the redbird 
sports among the magnolia flowers .—British Birds , 
vol. i., p. 425. 
9.—The Eaven in the Hebrides. 
The character of the raven accords well with the 
desolate aspect of the rugged glens of the Hebridian 
moors. He and the eagle are the fit inhabitants of 
those grim rocks; the red grouse, the plover, and 
its page, of those brown and scarred heaths; the 
ptarmigan, of those craggy and tempest-beaten 
summits. The red-throated diver and the mer¬ 
ganser, beautiful as they are, fail to give beauty to 
those pools of dark-brown water, edged with peat 
banks, and unadorned with sylvan verdure. Even 
the water-lily, with its splendid white flowers, 
floating on the deep bog, reflects no glory on the 
