CROWS 51 



as to leave him in peace and return to their former 

 play. Soon, however, judgment fell upon them, 

 for a couple of red-wattled plover, Sarcogrammus 

 indicus, who had for some time been looking on 

 with manifest disapproval, suddenly assaulted them 

 and drove them off, complaining loudly, to the 

 bank. 



Almost the only occasions in which one sees 

 crows behaving respectfully are those in which they 

 come into close quarters with their immediate rela- 

 tives, for they certainly never venture to treat the 

 Indian corbie, Corvus culminatus, with unseemly levity. 

 Where one or two corbies are in possession of some 

 gruesome delicacy, the crows cannot help congre- 

 gating enviously around them, but they do so with 

 the utmost respect, are relatively silent, and never 

 venture to approach very closely, far less to make 

 any attempts at theft. 



Quite independently of their artistic apprecia- 

 tion of the value of mischief for mischiefs sake, and 

 of their morning and evening concerts, many of their 

 habits are very annoying to their human neigh- 

 bours. It is never safe to leave articles of food 

 for a moment unguarded in any place to which they 

 can gain access, and the trouble that they give in a 

 garden is endless. It is bad enough at any time, 

 but comes to a climax in the nesting season, when 

 their eager search for building materials leads them 

 to play havoc among treasured shrubs and creepers 



