48 Clear Skies and Cloudy. 



This caused a sudden closing of the orator's 

 speech, or argument, or whatever it really was, 

 and the assembled crows rose into the air, 

 some thirty feet or more above the trees. I 

 noticed, by mere chance, that the sentinels re- 

 mained perched in the trees. After the lapse 

 of probably three or four minutes, the circling 

 and chattering crows resumed their places, and 

 what was to me most curious of all, in prac- 

 tically the same way they were previously dis- 

 tributed, and one individual, I shall always 

 think the same, took up his position, in a way 

 suggestive of being Speaker of the house. 

 There was a brief repetition of the proceedings 

 as described, and then a shout or extra-loud call 

 uttered by every bird. The sentinels left their 

 posts, and joining their brethren of the con- 

 gress, the whole gathering flew away in the 

 same westerly direction. 



Now, if we are merely to witness what birds 

 do and refrain from contemplating their motives 

 in so doing, the great charm of out-door orni- 

 thology is gone. It is not satisfying to say there 

 was a lot of crows in the oaks of the gully 

 this morning and they made a great noise. It 



