122 EYE-BEAMS 



man sense, or whether it was simply an illus- 

 tration of the instinct of mutual support which 

 seems to prevail among gregarious birds, I 

 know not. Birds that are solitary in their 

 habits, like hawks or woodpeckers, behave 

 quite differently toward each other in the pres- 

 ence of their food. 



The lives of the wild creatures revolve about 

 two facts or emotions, appetite and fear. 

 Their keenness in discovering food and in dis- 

 covering danger are alike remarkable. But 

 man can nearly always outwit them, because 

 while his perceptions are not as sharp, his 

 poAver of reflection is so much greater. His 

 cunning carries a great deal farther. The crow 

 will quickly discover anything that looks like 

 a trap or snare set to catch him, but it takes 

 him a long time to see through the simplest 

 contrivance. As I have above stated, I some- 

 times place meat on the snow in front of my 

 study window to attract him. On one occasion, 

 after a couple of crows had come to expect 

 something there daily, I suspended a piece of 

 meat by a string from a branch of the tree just 

 over the spot where I usually placed the food. 

 A crow soon discovered it, and came into the 

 tree to see what it meant. His suspicions 

 were aroused. There was some design in that 

 suspended meat evidently. It was a trap to 

 catch him. He surveyed it from every near 

 branch. He peeked and pried, and was bent 

 on penetrating the mystery. He flew to the 

 ground, and walked about and surveyed it fronj 



