120 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
this is different from the mere inherited instinct that 
teaches animals how to obtain food, self-protection, ete. 
There are people who believe that they are the only wise 
animals, and deny that birds and beasts can think; while 
there are others who try to make these birds and beasts 
think on the same lines as ourselves rather than in their 
own way. Both these are wrong; both are like blind men 
that lead others into a ditch and leave them there. The 
only way for you and me to do is to watch out for our- 
selves, look carefully, and be very sure that we see what 
is, and not merely what we would like to see. 
“Now I will tell you what I, myself, have seen and know, 
and what others, whose word is guaranteed by the Wise 
Men, have seen concerning Crows and Jays. When I was 
a child, twenty-five years ago, riding my pony, I wandered 
all over the country-side with my father, and I knew 
every Crow roost and Hawk’s nest for miles, and for many 
years after I watched their comings and goings. Late 
last winter, when I came back to the dear home to live, 
I went out to the nearest of the old Crow roosts in the 
cedar woods yonder across the river (you can see the 
tree-tops plainly from this window), and, in spite of time 
and changes, a flock of Crows was still there. 
“To be sure, the flock was smaller, and there were 
fewer Cedars, many having been turned into fence and 
gate posts. But the Crows, big, black, solemn things as 
they are, seemed to give me a welcome. 
“The life of the Crow is dull if judged, perhaps, from 
the standpoint of the birds that make long journeys, such 
as the Swallows, Humming-birds, and the Night Hawk 
(that isn’t a Hawk at all), who nest in the far North and 
