114 RAMBLES OF 



to act, and at the same time were to advance with cocked 

 guns in our hands. The only way of moving forwards 

 at all, I found to be that of turning my shoulders as 

 much as possible to the dead branches, and breaking my 

 way as gently as I could. At last we reached the trees 

 upon which the crows were roosting ; but as the foliage 

 of the young pines was extremely dense, and the birds 

 were full forty feet above the ground, it was out of the 

 question to distinguish where the greatest number were 

 situated. Selecting the trees which appeared by the 

 greater darkness of their summits to be most heavily 

 laden with our game, my companion and I pulled our 

 triggers at the same moment. The report was followed 

 by considerable outcries from the crows, by a heavy 

 shower of pine twigs and leaves upon which the shot 

 had taken effect, and a deafening roar caused by the sud- 

 den rising on the wing of the alarmed sleepers. One 

 crow at length fell near me, which was wounded too 

 badly to fly or retain his perch, and as the flock had 

 gone entirely off, with this one crow did I return, rather 

 crestfallen from my grand nocturnal expedition. This 

 crow, however, afforded me instructive employment and 

 amusement during the next day, in the dissection of its 

 nerves and organs of sense, and I know not that I ever 

 derived more pleasure from any anatomical examination, 

 than I did from the dissection of its internal ear. The 

 extent and convolutions of its semicircular canals, show 

 how highly the sense of hearing is perfected in these 



