CROW RELATIVES 



would not leave till I rapped the tree. Then I went 

 upstairs to the nursery, after strapping on the climbers, 

 and found three ugly, nearly naked young. They 

 were too small to work upon successfully, so I left them 

 to grow larger. 



After this we drove up a long hill through the woods. 

 The timber was mostly small, but we came to some 

 that was of good size, where we hitched the horse and 

 took a scramble up the steep hillside. In a few mo- 

 ments I saw a large nest high up in a large chestnut 

 tree. A crow was brooding on this one, too, and she 

 was as loath to depart as the other bird. The nest was 

 so inaccessible for photographing that we did not 

 climb, but drove on a number of miles further, devouring 

 an ample lunch, as we proceeded, with keen appetites. 



The next tract which we decided to explore was a 

 grove of moderate-sized oak timber w r hich proved to be 

 smaller than I had thought, and I was at first sorry 

 that we had bothered with it. There were several 

 squirrels' nests, and presently I saw a nest that looked 

 promising. It was only about twenty feet up a slender 

 young oak, and there was a bird on it, a crow, I saw, 

 as I came nearer. Beside her, at the edge of the nest, I 

 could see some bright red objects which puzzled me 

 until I made out that they were the widely opened 

 mouths of young crows which were poking out their 

 heads from under the brooding mother and begging for 

 food. 



The old bird left when I came very near and I saw 

 140 



