CROWS 47 



interrupt their homeward journey at sundown, in 

 order to return again and again for the pleasure of 

 disturbing some drowsy king-crows and causing them 

 to rush forth in pursuit. Any strange raptorial bird 

 is at once surrounded by a noisy mob ; a belated 

 owl has a very bad time of it until he can find 

 some impregnable retreat, and any stray sea-eagle 

 that may venture into a garden to have a look 

 at the ponds, is very soon driven off by intolerable 

 persecution. The arrival of a palm-cat or civet in 

 a garden is announced by a tumultuous assembly 

 of crows, and even palm-squirrels, should they stray 

 out into the open, and especially among grass long 

 enough to hamper their movements, are immedi- 

 ately set upon. Monkeys are certainly not very 

 canny subjects for persecution, and seem to be 

 generally respected in places where they abound, 

 but when some were let loose in the Zoological 

 Garden .in Calcutta they were constantly escorted 

 about by vociferous retinues of crows. 



When crows are engaged in mobbing any formid- 

 able bird or mammal they assemble in immense 

 numbers, blackening the branches of the neigh- 

 bouring trees with their hosts, and keeping up a 

 continuous hubbub of cawing ; gradually crowding 

 in closer and closer around their victim, but ready, 

 on any sudden movement on its part, to disperse 

 for the time being in a perfect tempest of execra- 

 tion. Crows were always among the worst enemies 



