vi CUNNING OF CROWS 237 



sportsman with his gun they flee far away. I have repeatedly 

 shown to friends the following example of their intelligence. 

 My garden slopes up the side of a steep hill, covered with 

 vines. Crows are fond of settling on the vine-props, resting 

 without motion, and apparently careless and heedless of their 

 surroundings. Formerly, when the trees of the garden were 

 lower, they could look down on a table which stood there. 

 On the table I placed my gun, and beside it a stick. As 

 soon as I took up the gun, the crows flew away at once ; if I 

 took up the stick, they remained quiet where they were. They 

 noticed everything which went on, recognised the gun, and 

 rightly judged it was dangerous to them, even from the con- 

 siderable distance at which they were perched. 



The more one observes the higher animals in their natural 

 free state, the more one is filled with wonder at their intelli- 

 gence. Intelligence alone, and not instinct, will explain the 

 fact that the cattle-heron (Ardea russata) in Egypt, when flee- 

 ing before the sportsman, shelters itself under the oxen and 

 buffaloes, because it knows that it is there protected from his 

 gun. For it is not to be supposed that this has become an 

 automatic, a hereditary habit, simply because, as I have said, 

 it is only slaughter-loving foreigners who occasionally shoot 

 birds in that country. 



A curious instance of fear in an animal came under my 

 notice during my stay at Bottum. The egg -keeper had a 

 young dog of large size, a kind of sheep-dog in breed. As no 

 one on the island troubled himself about this animal, he 

 attached himself to me uninvited for want of companionship, 

 and followed me everywhere. One day I went down to the 

 shore to bathe. I had chosen a place beneath a high sand- 

 hill, where the sea deepened gradually, so that I could go out a 

 long way without getting beyond my depth. The dog had 

 followed me, and he sat down on the sand-hill and watched me 

 undress. With growing curiosity he followed each of my move- 



