64 



the long struggle between the rival birds. The angry 

 screams of the king-crows as they chased their foes 

 lasted almost without intermittance from 10-30 to 

 4-30. I took the trouble to time the frequency of 

 the attacks, and found that in thirty minutes the pair 

 of drongos gave chase to offending crows no fewer 

 than sixteen times. Assuming that there were four- 

 teen hours of daylight in the twent3^-four, then, every 

 day whilst nesting operations were in progress there 

 were about 450 separate fights between those king- 

 crows and the splendid birds. 



There is a certain horned ow'l which is said to 

 devour crows. 



Sober books of naturpJ history assure us that the 

 owl does do this, so I suppose we must believe it, 

 but it makes a considerable demand on one's faith. 

 What a fine thing it would be to watch the tragedy ; 

 to see on a moonlit night, a great owl swoop silently 

 down upon the crow's nest, upset the sleeping parents 

 and make off with a youno- one before the old birds 

 have realised w^hat has happened. The rage of these 

 when they had awakened sufficiently to realise what 

 had happened would be a sight for the gods. 



