106 A LONG BAY WITH THE BIRDS 
crow from that of the rook. ‘As the crow 
flies’ imphes a direct line, and I saw some 
solitary crows that looked like carrion crows 
illustrating this on the marshes. Their flight 
was straight and low. The rook’s is as a rule 
high, and. certainly not a .‘ ‘bee linewiire 
friend of mine who lives near here says he 
can always tell the carrion crow by this 
flight. Toillustrate the boldness and ferocity 
of these birds, he told me he had come one 
day suddenly upon one which was feeding on 
the carcass of a dead sheep. As my friend 
approached, the bird was very loth to leave 
it, and did not do so till he was threatened 
with a stick, and even then he moved away 
only a few feet, and raised his wings and 
‘kor’-ed savagely the while—returning to 
his feast as soon as my friend turned his back 
to him. 
We saw what is certainly uncommon, a 
mallard’s nest in the stump of an old willow 
about ten feet from the ground. Ducks’ nests 
are almost invarably on the ground (see Part 
I, p. 50, and Part II, p. 31). Why the bird had 
