A TREE TOP TRAGEDY 



IF I were a bird I would give the Indian crow a 

 very wide berth, and, whenever I did come into 

 unavoidable contact with him, I should behave 

 towards him with the most marked civility. A 

 clannishness prevails among crows which makes them 

 nasty enemies to tackle. If you insult one of the 

 " treble-dated " birds you find that the whole of the 

 corvi of the neighbourhood resent that insult as if it had 

 been addressed to each and every one individually, and 

 if you get back nothing more than your insult plus very 

 liberal interest, you are indeed lucky. In the same 

 way, crows will revenge an injury tenfold. The eye-for- 

 an-eye doctrine does not satisfy them ; for an eye they 

 want at least a pair of eyes, to say nothing of a com- 

 plete set of teeth. I recently witnessed an example of 

 what crows are capable of doing by way of revenge. 



A couple of kites built high up in a lofty tree the 

 clumsy platform of sticks which we dignify by the 

 name " nest." This was furnished, soon after its com- 

 pletion, by a clutch of three straw-coloured eggs, hand- 

 somely blotched with red. 



The uglist birds seem to lay the most beautiful eggs ; 

 this is perhaps the compensation which Dame Nature 

 gives them for their own lack of comeliness. 

 L 145 



