10 BIRDS THROUGH AN OPERA-GLASS. 
must be to the poor worm when they suddenly tip 
forward, give a few rapid hops, and diving into 
the grass drag him out of his retreat. Though 
they run from a chicken, robins will chase chip- 
munks and fight with red squirrels in defense of 
their nests or young. 
II. 
THE CROW. 
THE despised crow is one of our most interest- 
ing birds. His call is like the smell of the brown 
furrows in spring — life is more sound and whole- 
some for it. Though the crow has no song, what 
a variety of notes and tones he can boast! In 
vocabulary, he is a very Shakespeare among birds. 
Listening to a family of Frenchmen, though you 
do not know a word of French, you easily guess 
the temper and drift of their talk, and so it is in 
listening to crows — tone, inflection, gesture, all 
betray their secrets. One morning last October 
I caught, in this way, a spicy chapter in crow fam- 
ily discipline. 
I was standing in a meadow of rich aftermath 
lying between a stony pasture and a small piece 
of woods, when a young crow fiew over my head, 
cawing softly to himself. He flew straight west 
toward the pasture for several seconds, and then, 
as if an idea had come to him, turned his head 
Dg RE PTO a 
