314 ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 



splinters, or to disturb the arrangements of the annoying band- 

 ages. He seemed really to understand the nature of the services 

 rendered, and that they were for his good. 1 



Speaking of the Urubu vultures, Mr. Bates says: 



They assemble in great numbers in the villages about the 

 end of the wet season, and are then ravenous with hunger. My 

 cook could not leave the open kitchen at the back of the house 

 for a moment whilst the dinner was cooking, on account of 

 their thievish propensities. Some of them were always loitering 

 about, watching their opportunity, and the instant the kitchen 

 was left unguarded, the bold marauders marched in and lifted 

 the lids of the saucepans with their beaks to rob them of their 

 contents. The boys of the village lie in wait, and shoot them 

 with bow and arrow ; and vultures have consequently acquired 

 such a dread of these weapons, that they may be often kept off 

 by hanging a bow from the rafters of the kitchen. 2 



Mrs. Lee. in her 'Anecdotes,' says that one day her gardener 

 was struck by the strange conduct of a robin, which the man 

 had often fed. The bird fluttered about him in so strange a 

 manner now coming close, then hurrying away, always in the 

 same direction that the gardener followed, its retreating move- 

 ments. The robin stopped near a flower-pot, and fluttered over 

 it in great agitation. It was soon found that a nest had been 

 formed in the pot, and contained several young. Close by was 

 a snake, intent, doubtless, upon making a meal of the brood. 



The following appeared in the ' Gardener's Chronicle ' 

 for Aug. 3, 1878, under the initials * T. Cr.' I wrote to the 

 editor requesting him to supply me with the name of his 

 correspondent, and also to state whether he knew him to 

 be a trustworthy man. In reply the editor said that he 

 knew his correspondent to be trustworthy, and that his 

 name is Thomas Gruring : 



About thirty years ago the small market town in which I 

 reside was skirted by an open common, upon which a number 

 pf geese were kept by cottagers. The number of the birds was 

 very great. . . . Our corn market at that time was held in. the 

 street in front of the principal inn, and on the market day a 

 pjood deal of corn was scattered from sample bags by millers. 

 Somehow the geese found out about the spilling of corn, and 

 they appear to have held a consultation upon the subject. . . . 



1 Menault, Wonders of Instinct, p. 132. 



* Nat. on Amazons p. 177; Anecdotes, p. 135. 



