CHAPTEK III. 



HIS DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. 



COKVUS Splendens, Esquire, is 3> family man. 

 He does not keep his spouse waiting for dinner 

 while he is losing money at Bridge in the Club. He 

 is not one of that sort. He is a kind husband and an 

 affectionate father. Although naturally greedy, he 

 will actually allow his wife to take away food from 

 him, a piece of self-denial of which many people 

 refuse to believe the crow to be capable. 



If the cock bird is a model husband the female is 

 certainly a paragon of domestic virtue. Did not the 

 sage Manu declare that a Hindu wife should resemble 

 a crow ? Does not the koel select the nest of the 

 grey-necked species in which to place her eggs ? 

 Greater compliments than these could scarcely be 

 paid to a bird. For Manu was a man who thought 

 before he spoke. He selected as a pattern of 



