OLD FRIENDS IN NEW PLACES 



sparrows and juncoes traveled in company with the 

 white-throats, as they are usually found together 

 by day. If they do, the song sparrows would })egiQ 

 to drop out of the procession by the time they 

 reached the Potomac, and continue dropping out 

 more and more all through New York and New Eng- 

 land, but some of them keeping on well into Canada. 

 The juncoes would begin to drop out in the Catskills, 

 where they breed, and a few white-throats may do 

 so likewise, as I have found them in midsummer in 

 some of the higher regions of these mountains. 



Fear and suspicion are almost constant compan- 

 ions of most of the wild creatures. Even the crow, 

 who has no natural enemies that I know of, is the 

 very embodiment of caution and cunning. That 

 peculiar wing-gesture when he alights or walks about 

 the fields — how expressive it is ! It is a little flash 

 or twinkle of black plumes that tells you how alert 

 and on his guard he is. It is a difficult problem to 

 settle why the crow is so suspicious and cunning, 

 since he has few or no natural enemies. No creature 

 seems to want his flesh, tough and unsavory as it 

 evidently is, and we can hardly attribute it to his 

 contact with man, as we can the wildness of the 

 hawk, because, on the whole, mankind is rather 

 friendly to the crow. His suspicion seems ingrained, 

 and probably involves some factor or factors in his 

 biological history that we are ignorant of. 



On the whole, it is only the birds and animals 



99 



