BIRDS AT PLAY 71 



off. Thus the game went on until the big 

 bird got tired of it and let the crow win the 

 prize, which he did not really want, as the 

 quill had belonged to a magpie which lived on 

 his side of the wires. 



But the great place to see crow games is in 

 India, where a small kind of crow, much like 

 our jackdaw, lives in the towns like the sparrow, 

 and is very easy to watch. As he picks up 

 most of his food in the shape of scraps thrown 

 out from houses, he has plenty of time to 

 spare, and always seems ready to spend the 

 hour before bedtime in having a game. At 

 the Museum buildings in Calcutta, where I 

 lived, the great evening game for the crows 

 was very like " I'm king of the castle." There 

 were lightning-conductors on the building, 

 and some crows used to try to perch on these 

 straight pointed upright rods, which, of course, 

 was not easy, and the others did their best to 

 push them off while they were doing their 

 utmost to balance themselves on these un- 

 comfortable perches. 



Another game they played was to swoop 

 down on the backs of the kites as they soared 

 and circled about ; for the kite, although a 



