20 



They do this, not from love of the cultivator, but 

 to secure the worms and grubs exposed by the 

 plough. 



Every railway station in India has its colony of 

 crows, which, like the hotel porters, meet each train 

 and stalk up and down the platform with an eye for 

 the main chance. I was once greatly amused by 

 watching a party of these clever birds attacking a 

 goods train laden w4th sacks of corn. The train had 

 pulled up at a large junction, and, as is the way with 

 Indian goods trains, seemed likely to wait there for 

 many days. Meanwhile the crows were enjoying 

 themselves. There were two or three of them upon 

 each truck extracting with their powerful beaks the 

 grain throuoh the holes in the sacks. Whether the 

 birds had made the 'holes themselves I am unable to 

 say. I am inclined to think they had done so, for it 

 is hardly Hkely that in this country, where ''packing" 

 forms a most important item on every invoice, the 

 sacks would have been despatched full of holes. 



Crows are very partial to tender young frogs, 

 hence, after a heavy fall of rain, the versatile birds 

 make for some flooded field and there hunt for 

 crabs, frogs and insects. 



