46 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



will not occur to you and bird-murder be 

 unthinkable. 



But the crows : what of them ? Luckily, I 

 gained an advantageous point of view, after a 

 deal of painful crawling through the weeds ; 

 and briers' thorns are sharper in January than 

 at other times, or human flesh more sensitive. 

 Adjusting the field-glass, I saw not fancied I 

 saw that one crow, from a commanding posi- 

 tion, was haranguing the assembled multitude. 

 What I heard was one crow's voice that varied 

 or rang the changes on the basic syllable kaw 

 about as follows : kd ee', kd kaw ! kaw' kd ; 

 and then there was a babel of kaw ka-d-d, 

 that clearly expressed assent, an apparent 

 "that's so" that was ludicrously like the chatter 

 of congregated humanity when an orator stoops 

 to their comprehension. After a momentary 

 pause, the orator, as we will call the speaking 

 crow, resumed his speech, and the variations of 

 kaw kd were repeated, but with many sounds 

 like 2-S and a trill, as ar-r-r-r. The latter 

 were always, I thought, uttered in a more 

 rapid manner than what I have called the 

 basic syllable, kaw, and certainly were accom- 



