Jays and Crows 187 



stones at it. The Jay and the Crow are hated 

 because they are believed to be bad birds; show 

 them to be good members of the bird kingdom 

 and many people will not change their dislike of 

 them an iota. 



"I do not like you Dr. Fell, 



The reason why I cannot tell, 

 This single fact I know full well, 

 I do not like you Dr. Fell." 



Just as the mind crowds the unknown with fool- 

 ish superstitions, so we endow what we dislike 

 with every detestable quality that the imagination 

 can conjure up and this is the human quality that 

 has conceived of total depravity as a condition 

 not uncommon. We use the Crow as a unit of 

 measure in estimating conditions of blackness, and 

 as black as a Crow is superlative. He is a bird 

 belonging to the realm of uncreated night, mys- 

 terious, probably devilish. This belief was clearly 

 in the mind of Edgar Allan Poe, when he wrote of 

 the Raven, the Crow's first cousin : "And his eyes 

 have all the seeming of a demon that is dream- 

 ing." Now in spite of all this the Crow is not 

 as black as painted, and there are even white 

 Crows. 



What lies have been told about him, by people 

 who never meant to lie, and the lie in combina- 

 tion with printer's ink has made a fine mechanical 

 mixture for the dissemination of falsehood. A 



