THE INDIAN CORBY 237 



delusion that the grey-necked crow knew not the mean- 

 ing of the word " respect." The deference with which 

 the big-beaked species is treated by his smaller cousin 

 came as a complete surprise to me. 



Most Anglo-Indians are so embittered against the 

 whole tribe of the corvi that they will on no account 

 feed them. I do not share this prejudice. I am able to 

 see things from the corvine point of view. Were I a 

 crow I should most certainly consider man fair game. 



While in Crowborough I invariably gave the surplus 

 of my tiffin to the crows. Those in the locality of my 

 office window did not take long to find this out. The 

 grey-necked crows were the first to make the discovery. 

 It takes these less time to put two and two together 

 than it does the more sluggish-brained black crows. At 

 the end of a few days quite half-a-dozen grey-necked 

 fellows had learned to hang about my windows at the 

 luncheon hour. They used to sit in a row along each 

 window-ledge. One day a corby appeared upon the 

 scene. His arrival was the signal for the departure of 

 his grey-necked brethren. From that day onwards he 

 regarded that ledge as his special preserve, and whenever 

 a house-crow ventured on to the ledge he "went for" it 

 savagely with his great beak. The intruder never waited 

 long enough to enable him to get a blow home. Thus 

 the hunting-ground of the grey-necked crows became 

 restricted to one of the window-ledges. 



In order to tease the black fellow I used sometimes 

 to throw all the food to the window in which the grey 

 crows were perched. He would fly round and drive 

 them off that ledge and then give me a bit of his mind ! 



