56 HARD FAKE. 



they hung about the orchards as a last resort, and, 

 after scouring the desolate landscape over, would re- 

 turn to their cider with resignation, but not with 

 cheerful alacrity. They grew very bold at times, and 

 ventured quite under rriy porch, and filched the bones 

 that Lark, the dog, had left. I put out some corn on 

 the wall near by, and discovered that crows will not 

 eat corn in the winter, except as they can break up 

 the kernels. It is too hard for their gizzards to grind. 

 Then the crow, not being properly a granivorous bird, 

 but a carnivorous, has not the digestive, or rather the 

 pulverizing power of the domestic fowls. The diffi- 

 culty also during such a season of coming at the soil 

 and obtaining gravel-stones, which, in such cases, are 

 really the mill-stones, may also have something to do 

 with it. Corn that has been planted and has sprouted, 

 crows will swallow readily enough, because it is then 

 soft, and is easily ground. My impression has always 

 been that in spring and summer they will also pick 

 up any chance kernels the planters may have dropped. 

 But as I observed them the past winter, they always 

 held the kernel under one foot upon the wall, and 

 picked it to pieces before devouring it. This is the 

 manner of the jays also. The jays, perhaps, had a 

 tougher time during the winter than the crows, be- 

 cause they do not eat fish or flesh, but depend mainly 

 upon nuts. A troop of them came eagerly to my 

 ash-heap one morning, which had just been uncov- 

 ered by the thaw, but they found little except cinders 

 for their gizzards, which, maybe, was what they 



