48 BIRDS IN LONDON 



to find that the subject of this paper appears to 

 be little known as a domestic bird, or pet. A 

 caged crow, being next door, so to speak, to a 

 dead and stuffed crow, does not interest me. 

 Yet the crow strikes one as a bird with great 

 possibilities as a pet : one would like to observe 

 him freely associating with the larger unfeathered 

 crows that have a different language, to learn 

 by what means he communicates with them, to 

 sound his depths of amusing devilry, and note 

 the modulations of his voice ; for he, too, like 

 other corvines, is loquacious on occasions, and 

 much given to soliloquy. He is also a musician, 

 a fact which is referred to by ^Esop, Yarrell, and 

 other authorities, but they have given us no 

 proper description of his song. A friend tells 

 me that he once kept a crow which did not 

 prove a very interesting pet. This was not 

 strange in the circumstances. The bird was an 

 old one, just knocked down with a charge of 

 shot, when he was handed over in a dazed con- 

 dition to my informant. He recovered from his 

 wounds, but was always a very sedate bird. He 

 had the run of a big old country house, and was 

 one day observed in a crouching attitude 

 pressed tightly into the angle formed by the 



