Habits of the Carrion Crow. 213 



crows, and magpies, which had all large families to maintain 

 and bring up in the immediate neighbourhood. 



Keepers may boast of their prowess in setting traps (and, 

 in testimony of their success, they may nail up the mutilated 

 bodies of carrion crows against the kennel wall), but I am of 

 opinion, that, if the squire could ever get to know the real 

 number of pheasants and hares which have been killed or 

 mutilated in those traps, he would soon perceive that he had 

 been duped by the gamekeeper ; and that henceforth he would 

 forbid him to enter the covers in the breeding season, for the 

 purpose of destroying the carrion crows. The frequent dis- 

 charge, too, of the keeper's gun, though it may now and then 

 kill or wound a carrion crow, still will infallibly drive away 

 the game in the end, and oblige it to seek some more favoured 

 and sequestered spot. As to the setting of poison, a practice 

 so common with these worthless destroyers of crows, hawks, 

 magpies, jays, and ravens, which they are pleased to style 

 feathered vermin, it is a well known fact that foxes, ducks, 

 dogs, hogs, and pheasants are all liable to fall a prey to the 

 noxious bait. Often has the disappointed vulpine sportsman 

 to mark down a blank day in his calendar, on account of his 

 quarry having supped upon what was laid to kill the carrion 

 crow ; and I have reason to believe that the fox sometimes 

 loses his life, by feeding on carrion crows which have died by 

 poison. 



If we were to sum up, on one side, the probable number of 

 pheasants and partridges destroyed during one season by the 

 carrion crow ; and, on the other, reckon up how many times 

 the keeper has disturbed the game by going in search of this 

 bird, and thus exposed the nests of partridges and pheasants 

 to certain destruction by vermin of all kinds ; and, then, if we 

 take into the account the many heads of game which the 

 keeper has killed in his steel traps and rabbit-snares; we 

 should conclude, I think, that, in the long run, the game 

 actually suffers more from the keeper, in his attempts to 

 destroy the crow, than it really does from the crow itself, 

 while catering for its young. Indeed, I have made out the 

 account myself; and, finding the balance to be against the 

 keeper, I have renewed the order which I gave to his prede- 

 cessor, never, upon any score, to persecute what is commonly 

 called flying vermin. Thus, the partridges and pheasants 

 here, during the time of incubation, are abandoned to their 

 own discretion : and I judge, from what I have seen, that 

 old Dame Nature, without any interference on my part, will 

 kindly continue to point out to these birds proper places 

 where to lay their eggs and rear their young ; and, moreover, 



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