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that of playing mischievous pranks on other birds. 

 He makes a point of pretending to visit the nest of 

 every king-crow in the neighbourhood, merely to 

 annoy the little drongos in possession ; but of this 

 more anon. When a crow catches sight of another bird 

 indulging in day-dreams in a tree, it swoops down 

 upon it causing it nearly to die of fright, and then 

 flies away emitting caws of explosive laughter. 



Crows, of course, mob every strange bird they see. 

 Like London street boys they cannot tolerate any 

 " bloomin' furriners." 



Some time ago I happened in the daytime to put 

 up a large owl from the tree in which it was roosting. 

 A couple of crows caught sight of the night bird, and 

 were on it **like a knife." The owl alighted on the 

 branch of a tree, the crows took up a position on 

 either side of the owl, literally wedging it in. The 

 three birds sat thus for some time, perfect silence 

 being maintained, but the crows looked wickedness 

 itself. The owl was in an unfortunate predicament ; 

 it would have dearly loved to make an example of 

 its tormentors, but it knew^ that if it attacked one of 

 them the other would be able to set upon it from 



