212 PASSERES. CORVID^. 



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The food of the Jabbering Crow is principally 

 vegetable. Of several shot in autumn, the stomachs 

 contained various berries, some fleshy, others fari- 

 naceous. The stomach is a muscular sac, but not 

 a gizzard. Descending in the early months of the 

 year to the ripening sour sops, on which it feeds, it 

 is then much more approachable, but at the same 

 time more silent. And about the same time, the 

 seed of the bitter wood is ripe, which also attracts 

 him. One of these trees is in the yard of a house at 

 Content, where I occasionally sojourned ; this was 

 generally visited at dawn of day, and sometimes in 

 the evening, by the Crows. I have been amused by 

 the intelligence which they manifest in approaching 

 it : a company of two or three will come into the 

 neighbourhood, and alight with much clamour on 

 some tree in the woods, a few rods distant ; we hear 

 no further sound, but presently one and another are 

 seen stealing on silent wing to the bitter-wood, 

 where they nibble the berries in all stillness and 

 quiet. I could not help thinking that the noisy and 

 ostentatious alighting on the first tree was but a 

 feint to prevent suspicion, as if they should say, 

 " Here we are, you see ; this is the place that we 

 frequent." And this, I am informed, is not an ac- 

 cidental case, but a habit. The pimento also, 

 which in its green state is eaten by so many of our 

 birds, tempts the Jabbering Crow in February from 

 his forest fastnesses, to the low but dense groves that 

 clothe the mountain brows. 



An intelligent person has informed me, that it will 

 take advantage of a small bird's being entangled in a 



