22 RAPACITY OF CROWS. 



birds pursuing the baggage camels which followed 

 our cart, and after perching on the packs fly away 

 with something in their beaks. On a closer investi- 

 gation, I discovered that they had torn a hole in one 

 of the provision bags, and were purloining our rusks. 

 They would hide their plunder somewhere on one 

 side of the road, and then return again for more. 

 After this discovery, all such thieves were summarily 

 shot ; but others soon appeared in their stead, to 

 share a like fate. 



This went on every day till we reached Kalgan. 

 The rapacity of the crows in Mongolia surpasses 

 belief. These birds, so shy with us, are there 

 so impudent as to steal provisions almost out of 

 the tents of the Mongols. Nay, they will actually 

 perch on the backs of the grazing camels, and tear 

 their humps with their beaks. The foolish, timid 

 animal only cries at the top of its voice, and spits at 

 its tormentor, who returns again and again to the back 

 of the camel until it has inflicted a large wound by 

 means of its powerful beak. The Mongols consider 

 it wrong to kill birds, and so they cannot rid them- 

 selves of the crows, which accompany every caravan 

 across the desert. It is impossible to leave any food 

 outside the tent without its being instantly stolen by 

 these audacious birds, who, if they can find nothing 

 better, will tear the undressed hides off the boxes of 

 tea. These crows and the kites in summer were 

 our inveterate foes throughout the expedition. 

 Many a time they robbed us of small skins which 

 we had prepared for our collection, to say nothing 



