306 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



humming-bird, and act it well. Something, I know not 

 what, away np in a tall oak, was found by the crow, but 

 could not be reached. It climbed above, below, and around 

 it, but all to no purpose. That unknown something was 

 safe, I concluded ; but the crow was not so readily con- 

 vinced. Baffled in every other way, the bird took a 

 short outward flight, turned, and, maintaining itself in 

 humming- bird-like position for several seconds, at last 

 secured the coveted morsel. Then it sought the near- 

 est perch, held the object, about the size of a hen's egg, 

 a moment in its beak — and swtillowed it. It was evident- 

 ly a dainty tidbit, for ere the crow took flight it chuckled 

 to itself in a very meaning way. 



That crows are cunning all the world knows ; but I 

 liave never seen the fact more clearly demonstrated than 

 by the bird I saw this morning. 



Equally intelligent, probably, is the following, which 

 I take from my note-book: The crows had assembled 

 on Duck Island, in the Delaware River, and were busily 

 engaged in running along the edges of the sand-bars, 

 exposed at low tide. Every few moments one of them 

 would rise up to a height of fully fifty feet, carrying a 

 mussel in its beak, and flying inland, to a distance of one 

 hundred yards, would let the mollusk fall on the mead- 

 ow. Usually the force of the fall was sufficient to break 

 the shell. The crows, as soon as they had let fall their 

 burden, immediately returned to the island and bars, 

 and gathered more mussels. This was continued until 

 the returning tide made mussel-hunting impracticable. 

 In no instance did the crows carry the food they were 

 gathering by their feet; a method said to be adopted 



