THE SCAVENGERS 



but an arrant thief. The raven will eat 

 most things that come his way, — eggs and 

 young of ground-nesting birds, seeds even, 

 lizards and grasshoppers, which he catches 

 cleverly; and whatever he is about, let a 

 coyote trot never so softly by, the raven 

 flaps up and after; for whatever the coyote 

 can pull down or nose out is meat also 

 for the carrion crow. 



And never a coyote comes out of his 

 lair for killing, in the country of the car- 

 rion crows, but looks up first to see where 

 they may be gathering. It is a sufficient 

 occupation for a windy morning, on the 

 lineless, level mesa, to watch the pair of 

 them eying each other furtively, with a 

 tolerable assumption of unconcern, but no 

 doubt with a certain amount of good un- 

 derstanding about it. Once at Red Rock, 

 in a year of green pasture, which is a bad 

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