A NATURALIST. * 118 



vociferously, as if in contempt or derision. Had I 

 been prepared for this, a few of them might have 

 suffered for their bravado. But my second gun was 

 in the bow of the boat, and before I could get to it 

 the black gentry had risen to their former security. 

 While we were sitting at tea that evening, a black 

 came to inform me that a considerable flock of 

 crows, which had arrived too late to join the great 

 flock, had pitched in the young pines, not a great 

 way from the house, and at a short distance from the 

 road-side. We quickly had the guns in readiness, 

 and I scarcely could restrain my impatience until it 

 should be late enough and dark enough to give us a 

 chance of success. Without thinking of anything 

 but the great number of the crows, and their inabi- 

 lity to fly to advantage in the night, my notions of 

 the numbers we should bring home were extravagant 

 enough, and I only regretted that we might be 

 obliged to leave some behind. At length, led by 

 the black boy, we sallied forth, and soon arrived in 

 the vicinity of this temporary and unusual roost; 

 and now the true character of the enterprise began 

 to appear. We were to leave the road, and pene- 

 trate several hundred yards among the pines, whose 

 proximity to each other, and the difficulty of moving 

 between which, on account of the dead branches, has 

 been heretofore stated. Next, we had to be careful 

 not to alarm the crows before we were ready to act, 

 and at the same time were to advance with cocked 

 guns in our hands. The only way of moving for- 

 wards at all, I found to be that of turning my 

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