BIRD-HAUNTED LONDON 105 



cat, and when the assassin was upon him, gravely 

 took a couple of sideway hops out of reach and 

 turned his back on the enemy of his race to tickle 

 his craw with a leather-jacket. This happened again 

 and again, and each time one of the crows evaded 

 the cat's rush with a mixture of ease, calm and mild- 

 ness and an air of " what ails you, my good friend ? " 

 ludicrously discomposing to the cat. The others, who 

 made a circle round the cat, either took no notice of it 

 at all, or threw a compassionate glance over its way, and 

 then back to the grub. Now and then they all stopped 

 feeding and gazed at it as we might at some person 

 making a fool of himself and not aware of it. At no 

 time was the cat distant more than three or four yards 

 from any of the birds. Finally, the cat simply gave 

 it up and retired, looking so crestfallen that the crows, 

 watching his departure, seemed to pity him more than 

 ever. 



This was not the only cat-and-crow incident I wit- 

 nessed. One day later I saw this same black cat, a 

 thorough picaro, stalking a solitary crow feeding on 

 the ploughland with his back turned to the enemy. 

 Suddenly he turned round, and this time it was too 

 much. He gave a shout of rage, leaped into the 

 air, hovered some feet over the cat (who sat back on 

 his haunches as when attacked by a dog), making 

 stoops within a few inches of the feline nose. But 

 this was only the first act. Finding that the cat 

 was immovable, friend crow sprang up higher into the 

 air and began trumpeting " caws " for all he was 

 worth, paying no attention to the cat. Then, behold, 

 from different quarters came a reinforcement of two 

 crows, pelting along as hard as they could go and shout- 

 ing encouragement to the solitary warrior. Having 

 joined forces, the three crows hovered down close upon 

 the cat, fluttering their wings, swooping down upon 

 him and singing hoarse battle-songs. This was alto- 

 gether too much for the cat, who turned tail, walked, 

 trotted, galloped, and finally bolted, pursued by the 

 triumphant crows right into the street, two hundred 

 yards away, when they gave it up. The drama occurred 



