432 Practical Game Preserving. 



deliberation, and when one or two have found the situa- 

 tion safe, the rest drop in gently, one, two, or three at 

 a time. We have often observed with interest a large 

 flock of crows taking up their abode for the night in a 

 plantation or wood ; further, when the evenings have been 

 wet, we have made terrible inroads on the "hoody craws" 

 which have " trespassed in pursuit." Indeed, such occa- 

 sions offer capital opportunity for thinning the ranks of 

 these vermin, and ten or twelve, two and three nights in 

 succession, have often tumbled off the tops of the larch 

 trees in a manner uncomfortable to themselves, but grati- 

 fying to the director of the quiet pot shots beneath. 



About the month of March the young crows commence 

 to pair off, and as soon as mated the construction of the 

 nest is begun, and is slowly brought to completion by the 

 united efforts of both birds. It is, though large, by no 

 means compact, and is invariably placed at not on the 

 fork (not always the main one) of a large tree. Sometimes it 

 is on the topmost boughs of a high swinging Scotch fir; 

 at others, as near the extremity of the middle branch of an 

 overhanging oak as comfort and safety will allow. 



The food of the crow with which we have chiefly to 

 do is of such varied nature and extends to objects so 

 vastly different, according to locality, that very erroneous 

 opinions are sometimes formed regarding the amount of 

 destruction it will commit among game of all kinds. Re- 

 garding the mistaken idea that the crow is alike a " farmer's 

 friend " and not inimical to game preserving, we shall 

 mention the animals, &c., the numerical diminution of which 

 is desirable to the farmer. Foremost among them are mice, 



