i8o Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



the storage habit in wild rooks and jackdaws, and from 

 my studies of tame ravens I should say that they share 

 the habit to the same or a greater degree. A friend of 

 mine possessed a tame raven, which was regularly given 

 free run of the grounds. One day we were making a 

 trivial adjustment to a motor-car with the garage door 

 open when the raven, its presence hitherto unnoticed, 

 took three ungainly hops and snatched up a little plated 

 spanner from almost under my hand. The chase that 

 followed through the shrubberies was hot and long, 

 several stable boys lending very able and hearty assistance, 

 but the bird refused to drop the key, and succeeded in 

 evading us. 



A considerable time later I received the key back by 

 post, together with a very interesting note. The raven 

 had died, and with the removal of its old cage a vast 

 assortment of articles had been found under the board 

 floor, including the plated key, a cycle oilcan, a motor-car 

 valve, etc., etc. The bird had dropped them through a 

 crack in the floor, doubtless responding to the instincts of 

 the storage habit, yet so thinly formed were the ideas of 

 the poor captive creature that it had cached its treasures 

 in such a way that they were lost to itself and everyone 

 else ! I recall a fable or a fact of a raven which deliberately 

 dropped a gold ring into a well. 



Such acts on the part of captive ravens, jackdaws, 

 magpies, and the like are generally consigned to the cate- 

 gory of deliberate mischief, but it is far more reasonable 

 to suppose that they are the evidence of a habit which, 

 in a wild state, plays some important part in the welfare 

 of the species. The terms *' mischief '' and ** theft " 

 are very loosely used when applied to the ways of wild 

 nature, and the storage habit in birds and beasts often 

 shows itself in the most peculiar ways, so far removed 

 from the actual storing of food as to seem to have little 



