Mr Audubon's Account of the Carrion Crow. 159 



other day the one last laid ; but upon putting back the whole 

 number, the bird left her nest and never returned. 



The male and female take by turns the labours of incuba- 

 tion, and they also feed each other. It is not unusual to see 

 young carrion crows, when yet all over down, leave the site 

 of their nativity to meet the parent coming with food many 

 yards from the spot ; but if they are surprised in the act by a 

 hunter, they squat immediately close to the ground as a setting 

 spaniel, and lie there till all danger is over. The young ac- 

 company their parents (who have only one brood each season) 

 till October. This is perceived when a flock is disturbed, on 

 which occasion the old and young pair single off by themselves, 

 and they alight nearer to each other than those of a different 

 family. 



While the turkey- buzzard rises from the ground with great 

 ease, and with four or five flaps of their large wings, the car- 

 rion crows are seen labouring hard to assist their slower ascent. 

 They give a few flaps that are so powerful as to occasion a 

 rustling through the air, and having failed after they have got 

 on a very few yards, they are again forced to flap to enable them 

 to keep at least on the same horizontal line. Their wings are 

 squared with the body, the neck extending to its full length 

 before, whilst the legs and feet are stretched under the tail be- 

 hind. In ascending, the inclination of their body upwards is 

 very apparent, and their labour is extreme till they are suffi- 

 ciently high to form large circles, and force themselves towards 

 the sky by imitating the easier movements of the buzzard. 



Like the buzzards they rise very high, and they at last dis- 

 appear, following each other in a straight line. When so high 

 they seldom launch themselves obliquely for pleasure, for to 

 re-ascend is too irksome, but when they are observed to incline 

 to the earth, or to alight on a tree, they suffer their legs and 

 thighs to hang perpendicularly under them, even although 

 they are at a great distance from the place, as if they were 

 afraid to come in contact with it unprepared. 



Hawks of different species are frequently found sailing 

 among them, and also buzzards, more particularly the great 

 ibis, which the carrion crow follows to the lakes in autumn, 

 to feed on the fish killed and abandoned by these extraordi- 

 nary birds. The fish thus killed are often so numerous, that 



