110 RAMBLES OF 



No. XL 



IT rarely happens that any of the works of 

 nature are wholly productive of evil ; and even the 

 crows, troublesome as they are, contribute in a small 

 degree to the good of the district they frequent. 

 Thus, though they destroy eggs and young poultry, 

 plunder the corn-fields, and carry off whatever may 

 serve for food, they also rid the surface of the 

 earth of a considerable quantity of carrion, and 

 a vast multitude of insects and their destructive 

 larvae. The crows are very usefully employed when 

 they alight upon newly-ploughed fields, and pick 

 up great numbers of those large and long-lived 

 worms which are so destructive to the roots of all 

 growing vegetables; and they are scarcely less so 

 when they follow the seine-haulers along the shores, 

 and pick up the small fishes, which would otherwise 

 be left to putrefy, and load the air with unpleasant 

 vapours. Nevertheless, they become far more nume- 

 rous in some parts of the country than is at all ne- 

 cessary to the good of the inhabitants, and whoever 

 would devise a method of lessening their numbers 

 suddenly, would certainly be doing a service to the 

 community. 



About a quarter of a mile above the house I 

 lived in, on Curtis's creek, the shore was a sand- 



