32 In Touch with Nature. 



found to say then is applicable now, except in the 

 matter of numbers. He speaks of millions of 

 crows near Bristol, Pennsylvania, but I have never 

 seen so many as one thousand gathered together 

 since living here. Now, to see more than one 

 hundred on the marshes at low tide is an unusual 

 sight. He accords them a considerable degree of 

 intelligence, and we can read between the lines that 

 he wished to use stronger terms than he did. He 

 need not have feared contradiction. Admiring 

 their cunning, and convinced of their advanced 

 mental power as compared to other birds, he, 

 strangely enough, felt he was doing the world a 

 service in stooping to be their murderer. At least, 

 where love of nature and wild life in all its phases 

 is strongly developed, we might suppose the insane 

 desire to kill would be effectually restrained. 



Crows talk, it is true, in an unknown tongue, but 

 their gestures are translatable. The energy with 

 which the leaders lay down the law, or, if argu- 

 ing, make telling speeches, is unmistakable, and the 

 acquiescence or disapproval of the audience, as 

 the case may be, cannot be misconstrued. Who- 

 ever has been at a large political meeting and heard 



