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rotten and frozen apples which hang on the twigs; 

 and, like tlieii* saucy relations, the Jays, dressed in 

 jaunt.v plumed hats, white vests and bright blue coats, 

 they eat chestnuts, beechnuts, acorns and other seeds 

 known as "mast." They eateh frogs and sometimes 

 kill and devour small sized snakes. They will go in 

 shallow water to catch fishes which they consume. 

 Most flesh eating animals, either birds or quadru- 

 peds, which obtain their livelihood by open warfare, 

 do not show an inclination to feed upon carrion and 

 offal unless compelled to do so by reason of the 

 scarcity of normal food supplies. 



THEY SOMETIMES PREFER CARRION. 



The Raven, however, has the habit of subsisting, in 

 part at least, on such a menu, even when other food 

 could be obtained with the usual cunning and activity 

 displayed by this race of pilferers. Of this I was 

 fully convinced some three years ago, when visiting 

 at Glen Union, Clinton county. Pa., where two or 

 three families of Ravens had their headquarters in 

 rocky cliffs, some four miles in the interior. At ir- 

 regular intervals some of the meddlesome tribe would 

 come down to dwellings, along the Susquehanna river, 

 and steal a young chicken or rob a hen's nest; and, 

 on one occasion, I noticed two of them in a vine, 

 along the road near the railroad station (Glen Union), 

 eating "frost" or chicken grapes, a common article of 

 diet, by the way, for the Pheasant or Ruffed Grouse. 

 These Ravens daily came to the places where the 

 woodsmen ate their dinners and fed the horses, and in 

 a short time after being allowed to pick up, un- 

 molested, pieces of bread and meat about the camp, 

 they became quite tnnie, unless they saw a stranger 



