230



Mr. G. E. Rattigan



The result however was neither encouraging nor flattering to

his vanity, for on the first few occasions the crow, frightened half out

of its wits, made off panic-stricken, much to the evident dismay and

disgust of the raven, which however never attempted to pursue it,

its feelings I suppose being too hurt or its dignity too ruffled to try

another advance for the moment. After a bit, however, as the crow

became more used to this performance, it merely ignored his advances

until thoroughly exasperated by its indifference, the raven would

suddenly in blind rage rush murderously upon the hitherto object

of his affections, who however was usually too wai'y to be caught

napping. Once or twice, whether it was because of some fancied

encouragement from his lady-love or in order to try the effect of

some new ruse I could not determine, he suddenly would hop off at

a great pace towards his outhouse, but after proceeding about twenty

yards he would pause to see if he was being followed I presume, and

would continue his headlong dash for home, into which he would

disappear for a moment or two, when his head would cautiously

appear to see if his ruse had met with any success. More rarely

still he would unearth one of his most treasured possessions and

having carefully placed it in full view of the crow would retire to

some distance with a great assumption of indifference, though be¬

neath it all it was easy to see that his sahle heart was tremulous

with suppressed excitement. Eventually, none of his love-making

schemes bringing him even a momentary gleam of success, his love

turned to bitter hatred and the crows became to him as a red rag to

a bull. They had barely time to alight when he launched himself

blindly, furiously, after them, blindly because he displayed none of

his usual running in the chase and pursued them frequently for a

mile or more. This spleen and rancour that he developed against

the crows was I feel sure the eventual cause of his downfall. One

morning he was missing and did not turn up to breakfast, a meal he

was seldom if ever late for, nor did I ever see or hear of him again.

No doubt, whilst pursuing the objects of his hate, fate in the shape of

“ the man with the gun ” overtook him and put an untimely end to

his career; and as a fact we heard two shots fired near, early on

the morning of his disappearance.


The bird was a great loss to me and while he lived, a source



