28o WILD NATURE'S WAYS. 



laughable to watch them greedily waiting on 

 some tree, telegrapn wire, or stick heap at a 

 safe distance for a sparrow, with privileged im- 

 pudence, to visit the precincts of some dwelUng- 

 house and fly off with a piece of food. Directly 

 the little brown forager has passed some imaginary 

 line of danger, the sable thieves give chase, and 

 dodge and double as he will, they ruthlessly 

 harry him until he drops the tit-bit. If the 

 falling scrap happens to alight in a thick hedge- 

 row or evergreen, they hunt the ground with 

 an amount of care and persistency which is 

 astonishing even in a hungry rook, but never 

 appear to dream of examining any more elevated 

 situation for the missing food. 



In spite of the conquering march of science, 

 squalid mounds of refuse from large towns lie all 

 over the countryside to offend the organs of sight 

 and smell. I have seen the crowns of such heaps 

 as had by spontaneous heat melted their way 

 through a heavy fall of snow literally black with 

 rooks, diligently searching for unsavoury trifles. 



Farmers with conscientious scruples about the 

 use of firearms on the Sabbath have assured me 

 that these birds know when it is Sunday, because 

 they are much bolder in approaching sheep 

 troughs to steal corn on the first than any other 

 day of the week. 



The jackdaw is a much more venturesome 



