98 FRO^f BLOMIDON TO SMOKY. 



a " big crow " and any other crow. Never- 

 tlieless, sometliing in the shape, bearing, and 

 method of flight of the three visitors to Smoky 

 fixed my attention several moments before a 

 hoarse croak from the throat of one of them 

 came echoing up the ravine and ^^roclaimed their 

 true character. At Ingonish they were abun- 

 dant, especially near the cliffs of Middle Head, 

 wdiere I should exj)ect to find them breeding 

 if I made search at the proper season. Both 

 ravens and crows were remarkably tame, and 

 when I found that very little Indian corn is 

 grown in Cape Breton, and that the people 

 seemed ignorant of the crow's affection for 

 sprouting corn, I felt that I had discovered one 

 reason for their tameness. It was not unusual 

 for a flock of ten or more crows to sit quietly 

 upon the top rail of a snake fence bounding a 

 highway, until a person walking or driving past 

 came nearly opposite to them. If they were in 

 a tree twelve or fifteen feet above the road, they 

 did not think of flying away. Six ravens in a 

 pine-tree on Middle Head remained quiet while 

 I clambered over a mass of rocks less than a 

 hundred feet from them. 



In Nova Scotia I saw kingbirds everywhere, 

 four or five sometimes being in sight from the 

 car window at once. I felt as though in the 

 orchard and hay country of the Annapolis Basin 



