98 ADVENTURES AMONG BIRDS 



and it seemed in part a questioning note, as if he was 

 asking me what I was? Why I regarded him so at- 

 tentively? What were my intentions towards him? 

 And in part it was a soHloquy, and this was how I 

 interpreted what he appeared to be saying: "What has 

 come to me — what ails me that I cannot continue my 

 journey? The sun is now as high as it will be: the 

 green country is so near — a few minutes' flight would 

 carry me across this flat sea-marsh to the woods and 

 thickets where there are safety and the moist green 

 fields to feed in. Yet I dare not venture. Hark! that 

 is the hooded crow; he is everywhere roaming about 

 over the marshland in quest of small crabs and carrion 

 left by the tide in the creeks. He would detect this 

 weakness I find in me which would cause me to travel 

 near the surface with a languid flight; and if he saw 

 and gave chase, knowing me to be a sick straggler, my 

 heart would fail and there would be no escape. Day 

 and night I have flown southwards from that distant 

 place where my home and nest was in the birches, where 

 with my mate and young and all my neighbours we 

 lived happily together, and finally set out together on 

 this journey. Yesterday when it grew dark we were 

 over the sea, flying very high ; there was little wind, and 

 it was against us, and even at a great height the air 

 seemed heavy. And it grew black with clouds that were 

 above us, and we were wetted with heavy rain ; it ceased 

 and the blackness went by, and we found that we had 

 dropped far, far down and were near the sea. It was 

 a quiet sea, and the sky had grown very clear, sprinkled 



