54 



« 



rated peafowl then turned so savagely upon his 

 assailant that the latter suddenly remembered that it 

 had urgent business elsewhere. Could any assault 

 have been more unprovoked ? 



Every strange bird or beast which appears in any 

 place is regarded as fair game by the local crows. 

 It goes without saying that man is the favourite butt 

 of the crows, for he is so easily " drawn. " With the 

 exception of a good meal, there is nothing which 

 gives a crow so much happiness as disturbing a 

 human being who is desirous of spending a morning 

 in bed. To repeat what I said elsewhere. "When 

 the weary Anglo-Indian determines to spend an 

 ' Europe morning ' all the crows in the neighbour- 

 hood manage to find this out. How they accomplish 

 this I am unable to say for certain, but I strongly 

 suspect that a douceur to the bearer does the trick. 



Whether this is so 

 or not it matters 

 little ; what does 

 matter is that the 

 crows find out, and 

 take up a position 

 in the verandah at 



