53 



It must not be imagined that the crow confines 

 his mischievous attentions to his fellow-birds. Far 

 from it. He is always ready to play a practical joke 

 on any living thing. 



Only last week I saw a poor pariah dog, whose ribs 

 were coming through his skin, being tormented by a 

 pair of crows. They had taken away a piece of meat 

 he was eating ; not that they were hungry. They 

 made no attempt to devour the morsel ; they merely 

 flaunted it before the eyes of the ravenous dog, and 

 when attacked by him. they flew off a little way and 

 again jeered at him. 



Some time ago I awoke to find a peacock sunning 

 himself on my verandah. An "ignoble crow" 

 then arrived upon the scene. It was evidently upon 

 mischief intent. It strutted up to the peacock and 

 then jumped over his back. The bigger bird affected 

 not to notice the insult. Then the crow jumped over 

 his head. This was too much for the peafowl, who 

 took a peck at the " treble-dated bird " but missed it. 



After again hopping over its victim the crow 

 came, up from behind and took a gentle pull at one 

 of the train feathers. This offence was ignored. 

 The crow then took a good hard pull. The exaspe- 



