. Game birds and wild fowl, their friends and their foes . time tracts of Scotlandand Ireland. Compared with this crow, the eagle,the buzzard, even the peregrine falcon herself arealmost innocent and at least honourable enemies;nay even the fox is harmless when measured bythe same standard. I speak from an absence of several years I found myself,during the autumn of 1848, among some of thewildest mountains of Mayo. There first in earlyboyhood I loved to gaze at the eagle as hesoared among the clouds, or peeped with thrillinginterest over the stupendous precipices peopledwith m
. Game birds and wild fowl, their friends and their foes . time tracts of Scotlandand Ireland. Compared with this crow, the eagle,the buzzard, even the peregrine falcon herself arealmost innocent and at least honourable enemies;nay even the fox is harmless when measured bythe same standard. I speak from an absence of several years I found myself,during the autumn of 1848, among some of thewildest mountains of Mayo. There first in earlyboyhood I loved to gaze at the eagle as hesoared among the clouds, or peeped with thrillinginterest over the stupendous precipices peopledwith myriads of water-birds, whose discordantcries mingled with the roar of the first I learned to climb the heathery hill,to point the gun, or mark down the dusky packunder the guidance of my Highland preceptor,and enjoyed many a days grouse shooting—to saynothing of hares and woodcocks—that might nothave disgraced Caledonia herself. Well, theeagle was still there; so was my old friend theperegrine ; their ancient eyries were still occupied. GROUSE AND SCAUL CROWS. 207 either by the same birds or their descendants, andno rival stronghold had been established on thecliffs; even the fox had not materially increased—as I learned from the best authority, the wivesof the poor squatters who were quartered on theoutskirts of this wild region, and whose wholewealth consisted of their pig and their poultry—but the grouse were sadly reduced; in fact theyhad almost disappeared, and in their place vastnumbers of the hooded crow were scattered overthe face of the country. Not a turf-stack or pro-jecting rock but was occupied by groups of thesebanditti-looking birds, not a clod or tussock evenpartially elevated above the heath but one ofthem was perched on the summit; vigilant, wary,and shy, as if ever on the watch to escape thepunishment due to his misdeeds. With his nestsecurely lodged on the inaccessible shelves of theprecipices, he laughs at open warfare, and it isonly
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectg, booksubjecthunting
