170 TALKS ABOUT BIRDS 



seem absolute " butter-fingers " by comparison 

 with them. 



In fact, I so much admired the skill of these 

 bold robbers that in Calcutta I often used to 

 feed them with scraps after breakfast, and 

 never remember seeing them miss anything 

 I threw up for them. As I said in speaking 

 about crows, kites often lose their booty to 

 these cunning rivals, and " battles of kites 

 and crows " must have been well known to 

 our ancestors, as they are mentioned as the 

 types of little petty wars. In Egypt the 

 yellow-billed kite has for a rival scavenger in 

 the towns our well-known hooded crow, which 

 is quite a familiar bird there, though a bird of 

 the wilds with us. What particular crow used 

 to haunt English towns does not seem to be 

 mentioned the carrion crow, I suppose ; 

 certainly the raven was a town scavenger in 

 some places, and where he was common the 

 kites had no chance for any pickings. 



The bird called " carrion crow " in many 

 towns in warm parts of America, and pro- 

 tected by law as a street scavenger, is not 

 really a crow at all, but a small kind of vulture, 

 about as big as a fowl ; as it is all black, and 



