SHRIKES AND DAWS. 107 
raven, the crow will attack a weakly lamb, or carry off 
a leveret and a chicken, while at times it incenses the 
agriculturist by making a meal upon corn. But, on 
the other hand, it devours so large a quantity of 
carrion as to compensate in one way for the evil 
which it causes in another. 
Like the raven, also, the crow is practically omni- 
vorous, and will devour any eatable object which it 
may happen to find. Game, poultry, carrion, eggs, 
young birds, frogs, lizards, insects, and worms, none 
of these come amiss to its insatiable appetite, while 
it will frequently visit the seashore, and there feast 
heartily upon the various marine creatures which are 
washed up by the tide. 
Of mussels it seems especially fond, and cracks 
them by the simple device of carrying them into the 
air, and allowing them to fall from a considerable 
height upon the rocks below—a proceeding which 
savours rather of reason than of instinct. The raven, 
by the way, 1s credited with doings of a similar cha- 
racter. Finally, the bird, paying a visit to the fruit- 
garden, will occasionally feast upon ripe cherries and 
walnuts. 
Waterton’s paper upon the carrion crow is one of 
the most interesting of all his interesting essays, more 
especially as he devotes a large proportion of his 
remarks to investigating the amount of damage caused 
by the bird in the preserves. And it is scarcely 
necessary to say that his verdict is strongly in favour 
of the crow. 
‘‘If we were to sum up, on one side,” says he, 
