292 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



was always restless and did not seem to get appreciably tamer,. The 

 manner in which he dashed himself against his cage was recognized as 

 fraught with danger, and I was not surprised to find on post mortem 

 examination evidences of an inflammation of the membranes of the 

 brain. There was also found a blood clot of considerable size in the bulb, 

 and a smaller one between the cerebrum and cerebellum, so that it was 

 likely his death was caused by pressure on the vital centres of the bulb. 

 The bird would not eat bread or grain under any circumstances, 

 but was fond of raw meat, fish, and above all rats and mice, which he 

 preferred alive but did not refuse when dead. The manner in which 

 he dealt with rats and mice was something which, when once witnessed, 

 could never be forgotten. Though not a large or heavy bird he could 

 at once master and speedily kill the largest rat. When a rat or mouse 

 was put into his cage, he at once seized it with both claws and liter- 

 ally squeezed the life out of it, perhaps driving his beak into it at the 

 very moment he seized it, but in any case he very soon proceeded to 

 tear the creature to pieces and devour it, often eating the head first. 

 Till I saw what happened I had no idea that a bird of this size could 

 exhibit such power to destroy life rapidly. His action in these cases 

 was of amazing rapidity. Mice he often ate whole. On one occasion 

 he was given four half-growoi rats one after the other. This was a 

 severe test, but he was equal to the occasion, and in a few seconds they 

 were all hors de coinbat, and a little later dead. 



The intestinal tract of this bird had extraordinary ejective powers, 

 fasces being spurted two or three feet away. Hair balls were occasionally 

 passed per rectum. All the facts tended to illustrate the striking 

 rapidity of action and the strength of his neuro-muscular mechanism, 

 whether the muscle involved was striped or unstriped. 



The Crow. 



This bird came into my possession on December 1st, 1905. Though 

 he was not an old bird, as it seemed to me, and had been in confine- 

 ment for some time, he was unexpectedly wild, and restless, and has 

 remained so or with comparatively little change in spite of the fact 

 that two operations had been recently performed on his cerebrum. W'hat 

 surprised me most was the above and certain resemblances he showed 

 to the hawk.^ 



^I have learned since the writing of this paper was begun that this bird 

 was caught when still young in the spring of 1905, that he was allowed the 

 freedom of the house, was accustomed to hide things and appeared to recog- 

 nize his mistress who fed him but took no special notice of other people. 



