THE CARRION CROW. 89 
of death, than its hide is sent to the tan-pit, and its re- 
mains are either made into soup for the hunt, or care- 
fully buried in the dunghill, to increase the farmer’s 
tillage. The poor crow, in the mean time, despised 
and persecuted for having an inclination to feed upon 
that of which, by the by, the occupier of the soil 
takes good care that he shall scarcely have a transient 
view, is obliged to look out for other kinds of food. 
Hence you see it regularly examining the meadows, 
the pastures, and the corn fields, with an assiduity 
nor even surpassed by that of the rook itself. 
We labour under a mistake in supposing that the 
flesh of the young carrion crow is rank and unpa- 
latable. It is fully as goodas that of the rook; and 
I believe that nobody who is accustomed to eat 
rook-pie will deny that rook-pie is nearly, if not 
quite, as good as pigeon-pie. Having fully satisfied 
myself of the delicacy of the flesh of young carrion 
crows, I once caused a pie of these birds to be served 
up to two convalescent friends. whose stomach would 
have yearned spasmodically had they known the 
nature of the dish. I had the satisfaction of seeing 
them make a hearty meal upon what they considered 
pigeon-pie. 
The carrion crow- will feed voraciously on ripe 
cherries ; and, in the autumn, he will be seen in the 
walnut trees, carrying off, from time to time, a few 
of the nuts. With the exception of these two petty 
acts of depredation, he does very little injury to man 
during nine or ten months of the year; and if, in 
this period, he is to be called over the coals for 
occasionally throttling an unprotected leveret or a 
stray partridge, he may fairly meet the accusation 
