CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE 195 



discovered the black object to be a mere bit of 

 clod ! I imagine he looked around to make sure 

 no crow was watching him, then walked uncon- 

 cernedly down again. I could trace him by the 

 fresh tracks, up and down. The second crow had 

 come from the opposite direction and had gone 

 through exactly the same series of manoeuvres. I 

 chuckled at their stupidity. 



There had been a flurry of soft snow early in 

 the morning, and most of it was collected along 

 the road. The crow tracks in this soft carpet 

 were even more distinct than any I had noticed 

 before. The impressions of the warts on the 

 various joints of the toes were there and the 

 tapering cuts made by the claws. I followed one 

 track for some distance over the soft snow till it 

 suddenly stopped. For a moment I was at a loss 

 to know how my crow could get away and leave 

 no track. Then I found out. On either side of 

 the trail near its end were great marks, as if the 

 claw of some large animal had scratched the snow. 

 A little farther on were more scratches. They 

 had been made by the stiff quills of the crow's 

 wings as he took flight. I began to like crows. 



I bent my steps toward the first of a series of 

 small brooks which found their way through this 

 field, all bound for the same level, the flats below 

 the town. In autumn I had gathered the fragrant 

 mint just where the road crosses the first stream, 

 and in a vague way I wondered if it were still 

 growing as fresh as in October. On my last visit 

 in November I could find no traces of the skunk 



