56 COMMON BIRDS OF AN INDIAN GARDEN 



them streaming in in order to find out what is up. 

 The emergence of a flight of white ants is certain 

 to assemble all the crows of the neighbourhood, 

 and the event can be detected at a considerable 

 distance by the throngs of crows, kites, and bats 

 that attend it. The crows for the time being 

 assume a habit of flight like that of insectivorous 

 birds, fluttering and wheeling about in the air, like 

 bee-eaters, as they drift to and fro through the 

 ascending swarm and pick up insects with their 

 beaks. 



As a rule, crows do not quarrel much among 

 themselves; indeed, they are usually so fully occu- 

 pied in attending to the affairs of other animals 

 as to have little time for this. Now and then, 

 however, tiffs do take place, and, in the course of 

 one of these, I have seen one of the combatants 

 hold his adversary for a time dangling by the tail 

 and protesting wildly at the indignity of his treat- 

 ment. Disputes, again, are not uncommon during 

 the nesting season, as there are always some 

 depraved couples who prefer stealing materials from 

 their neighbours' edifices to taking the trouble of 

 collecting them for themselves. Crows are so wary 

 and suspicious that merely to look at them from a 

 distance through a field-glass is enough to make 

 a party of them disperse as soon as they become 

 aware that they are being watched. At the same 

 time, however, they are so impudent as to crowd 



