CROWS 45 



performance is a very curious one ; one wonders 

 at the amazing tenacity of the lime that can with- 

 stand the struggles of such powerful birds; and, 

 even more, that the capture and outcries of one 

 after another of them causes so little alarm among 

 their neighbours that several of them may be taken 

 almost from the same perch. It is no easy matter 

 to disturb crows who have settled down for the 

 night, or to determine beforehand what will serve 

 to do so. I once spent a long and happy evening 

 in helping a friend to send fireworks into a tree 

 tenanted by an obnoxious colony of crows, without 

 eliciting any result save the utterance of a few 

 drowsy caws ; and yet, a little later on in the same 

 night, the sudden striking of a match in order to 

 light a pipe was enough to give rise to a perfect 

 torrent of outcries and the precipitate exodus of 

 a throng of crows from among the branches. 



Crows show evidence of a truly disinterested love 

 for mischief, and, consequently, never know what it 

 is to spend a dull moment ; there is always some- 

 thing at hand to be tormented or destroyed in the 

 spare moments that may intervene in the pursuit 

 of things to eat. Should one be suffering from a 

 fit of fever and have lain down in the hope of for- 

 getting discomfort in sleep, a crow is almost sure 

 to find one out and light on the shutters of any 

 open door or window in order to peer into the 

 room and make offensive remarks. When the 



