108 RAMBLES OF 



most from them, is in the spring, before their enor- 

 mous congregations disperse, and when they are ren- 

 dered voracious by the scantiness of their winter 

 fare. "Woe betide the corn-field which is not closely 

 watched, when the young grain begins to shoot above 

 the soil ! If not well guarded, a host of these ma- 

 rauders will settle upon it at the first light of the 

 dawn, and before the sun has risen far above the 

 horizon, will have plundered every shoot of the ger- 

 minating seed, by first drawing it skilfully from the 

 moist earth by the young stalk, and then swallowing 

 the grain. The negligent or careless planter, who 

 does not visit his fields before breakfast, finds, on his 

 arrival, that he must either replant his corn, or re- 

 linquish hopes of a crop ; and, without the exertion 

 of due vigilance, he may be obliged to repeat this 

 process twice or thrice the same season. Where the 

 crows go to rob a field in this way, they place one or 

 more sentinels, according to circumstances, in conve- 

 nient places ; and these are exceedingly vigilant, ut- 

 tering a single warning call, which puts the whole 

 to flight the instant there is the least appearance of 

 danger or interruption. Having fixed their sentinels, 

 they begin regularly at one part of the field, and 

 pursuing the rows along, pulling up each shoot in 

 succession, and biting off the corn at the root. The 

 green shoots thus left along the rows, as if they had 

 been arranged with care, offer a melancholy memorial 

 of the work which has been effected by these cunning 

 and destructive plunderers. 



Numerous experiments have been made, where 



