THE NORTHWEST CROW. 



15 



their dried fish and other tilings, while from superstitious feelings the 

 Indians never kill them but set a child to watch and drive them away. They 

 build in trees near the shore in the same way as the common crow and the 

 young are fledged in May." 



Mr. J. F. Edwards, a pioneer of "67, tells me that in the early days a 

 small drove of pigs was an essential feature of every well-equipped saw-mill 

 on Puget Sound. The pigs were given the freedom of the premises, slept 

 in the saw dust, and dined behind the mess-house. Between meals they 

 wandered down to the beach and rooted for clams at low tide. The Crows 

 were not slow to learn the advantages of this arrangement and posted them- 

 selves promptly in the most commanding and only safe positions ; viz., on 

 the backs of the pigs. The pig grunted and squirmed, but Mr. Crow, mindful 

 of the blessings ahead, merely extended a balancing wing and held on. The 

 instant the industrious rooter turned up a clam, the Crow darted down, 

 seized it in bis l>eak and matle off; resigning his station to some sable 

 brother, and leaving the porker to reflect discontentedly upon the rapacity 

 of the upper classes. Mr. Edwards declares that he has seen this little 

 comedy enacted, not once, but a hundred times, at Port Madison and at 

 Alberni, V. I. 



The Fish Crows have learned from the gulls the delights of sailing 

 the main i>n driftwood. I have seen numbers of them going out with the 

 tide a mile or more from shore, and once a Crow kept company with three 

 gulls (in a float so- small that the gulls had continuall}- tO' strive for position; 

 but the Crow stimd undisturlied. 



BIRDS AND BO.JiTS AT NEAH BAY. 



Photo by the Author. 



