164 Gossip about Gulls. [Sess. 



watched me, and as soon as I departed walked along and 

 pulled up every one ; so I shut him into the shed, where 

 he and scorie passed the night. He did not approve of his 

 punishment, and began tapping impatiently on the small sliding 

 panel through which the couple of them went in and out, but 

 which I had closed, of course. The scorie heard and rightly 

 interpreted the " tap, tap." He immediately began to tear 

 away at the panel, shoving his beak under it and trying to 

 lift it. This melted my soul. I bade the flowers look after 

 themselves, and released Master Crow. 



I regret to say that a neighbour threw poisoned meat over 

 the wall and killed my poor crow, " because it was not lucky 

 to keep such birds." 



The scorie's favourite amusement was catching sparrows. 

 This he did in a very ingenious manner. When food was 

 put out for him he would leave some scattered about. He 

 would stroll around picking up bits of twig and stone, and 

 seemingly quite indifferent to the sparrows watching a chance 

 to feed. When they were at it he would carelessly walk 

 nearer, and then, with a swift dash, fly at and secure an 

 unlucky birdie. A few sharp snaps crushed and killed it, 

 and then it was greedily swallowed. On one occasion I saw 

 him seize a sparrow, and I ran out to rescue it. He had it 

 by the wing, — not, as usual, by the body, — and had not man- 

 aged to kill it outright, so I was in time to get it from 

 him, to his intense disgust. But after that, if he caught one 

 and the door clicked, he bolted it anyhow, screaming, strug- 

 gling, wing or tail first, instead of, as formerly, breaking it up 

 and swallowing it head-foremost. As you may suppose, some 

 fun came of this, for even his capacious throat had some diffi- 

 culty in taking down a live sparrow. 



I kept one of the scorie's wings slightly docked to prevent 

 his flying, and he seemed quite contented with his lot. He 

 enjoyed playing in the snow, and would toss it up and tumble 

 about in it ; but he evidently did not like cold weather, and if 

 the door were left open would come into the kitchen quite 

 boldly. In frosty weather he suffered from some disease of 

 the throat ; it contracted so that he could not swallow, and I 

 had to push food down or he would have starved. He was a 

 bad patient, and I found it no easy job to nurse him, for his 



