SOME OF OUR PETS. 43 



Undaunted by invariable failure, he was always 

 ready, and would dash noisily after them ; while tliey, 

 enjoyinfy the joke — for every crow is a fellow of infinite 

 jest — Hew tantalizingly along close in front of his nose, 

 and only just out of his reach. Sometimes they would 

 settle on the ground a long way off, and — apparently 

 oblivious of him — become so deeply absorbed in search- 

 ing for the choicest morsels of rubbish that Toto, 

 deluded by the well-acted little play, would make a 

 wild charge. But the artless-looking crows, who all 

 the while were thinking of him, had accurately cal- 

 culated time and distance ; and as he galloped up — ■ 

 confident that this time at least he was really going to 

 catch one — they would allow him to come within an 

 inch of touching them before they would appear to see 

 him at all ; then, rising slowly into the air — as if it 

 were hardly worth the trouble to get out of his way — 

 they would hover, croaking contemptuously, above his 

 head, just out of reach of his spring. 



And when at last he was tired out with racinof after 



them, and — being, like Hamlet, " fat and scant of 



breath " — could only fling himself panting on the sand, 



they would walk derisively all round him ; come up 



defiantly, close to his gasping mouth, and all but perch 



on him. Before we left, several of the native dogs had 



learned the game ; possibly their descendants will keep 



it up, and — who knows ? — some naturalist of the future 



may record his discovery of a strange friendship 



between dogs and crows in Mogador. 



From the latter place T made several expeditions 



4 



