324 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



or croaking ensues, and the whole of the court, judges, barristers, 

 ushers, audience, and all, fall upon the two or three prisoners 

 at the bar, and beat them till they kill them. When this is 

 accomplished the court breaks up and quietly disperses. 



In the northern parts of Scotland (says Dr. Edmonson), 

 and in the Faroe Islands, extraordinary meetings of crows are 

 occasionally known t3 occur. They collect in great numbers, 

 as if they had all been summoned for the occasion ; a few of the 

 flock sit with drooping heads, and others seem as grave as 

 judges, while others again are exceedingly active and noisy ; in 

 the course of about one hour they disperse, and it is not un- 

 common, after they have flown away, to find one or two left 

 dead on the spot. These meetings will sometimes continue for 

 a day or two before the object, whatever it may be, is completed. 

 Crows continue to arrive from all quarters during the session. 

 As soon as they have all arrived, a very general noise ensues ; 

 and, shortly after, the whole fall upon one or two individuals, 

 and put them to death. When the execution has been per- 

 formed, they quietly disperse. 



Similarly, the Bishop of Carlisle writes in the ' Nine- 

 teenth Century ' for July 1881 : 



I have seen also a jackdaw in the midst of a congregation of 

 rooks, appa ently being tried for some misdemeanour. First 

 Jack made a speech, which was answered by a general cawing 

 of the rooks ; this subsiding, Jack again took up his parable, 

 and the rooks in their turn replied in chorus. After a time 

 the business, whatever it was, appeared to be settled satisfac- 

 torily : if Jack was on his trial, as he seemed to be, he was 

 honourably acquitted by acclamation ; for he went to his home 

 in the towers of Ely Cathedral, and the rooks also went their way. 



Lastly, Major-General Sir George Le Grand Jacob, 

 K.C.S.L, C.B., writes to me that while sitting in a ve- 

 randah in India, he saw three or four crows come and perch 

 on a neighbouring house. They then cawed continuously 

 with such peculiar sound and vigour as to attract his at- 

 tention. His account proceeds : 



Soon a gathering of crows from all quarters took place, until 

 the roof of the guard-house was blackened by them. Thereupon 

 a prodigious clatter ensued ; it was plain that a ' palaver ' was 

 going forward. Some of its members, more eager than others, 

 skipping about, I became much interested, and narroAvly watched 

 the proceedings, all within a dozen yards of me. After much 

 cawing and clamour, the whole group suddenly rose into the air, 



