PERCHING BIRDS. 137 
was beyond their powers, and no sooner had the third 
person left the field than they hurried to the spoil, but 
only, alas! to leave two of their number dead on the 
field, victims to the want of a knowledge of numeration.* 
I met with an interesting account of the sagacity of 
the rook in the Dundee Courier a few years since. Its 
truthfulness was vouched for by the gentleman who com- 
municated it, and by the editor :— 
“On Saturday week a very curious scene occurred in 
the colony of crows on the South Inch, Perth. One of 
the black denizens had been laboriously occupied in 
conveying sticks from the opposite side of the river, 
wherewith to build his nest, when something seemed to 
strike him that he was making no progress in its erec- 
tion, and that he was the victim of some thievish neigh- 
bour. That his suspicions were correct he soon dis- 
covered, and evidently adopted the following plan to 
detect the culprit. He set off apparently to cross 
the river, and kept his usual way, but on reaching 
the island he suddenly wheeled round, and sweeping 
behind the lime sheds he reached his nest just in time 
to catch the suspected rogue in the very act of robbing 
him of a stick. A fierce engagement ensued, lasting 
several minutes, when the thief clearly having the worst 
of the fight, was compelled to render justice to his in- 
jured neighbour by restoring his stolen property, as for 
nearly half an hour after, the latter was seen to carry 
stick after stick from the other’s nest without any mo- 
lestation, and apply them to his own.” 
* A similar instance is given by Macgillivray of the carrion 
crow, from an account communicated to him by Mr. Weir, but in 
this case the crow proved a worse arithmetician than the rooks I 
have mentioned. 
