100 WILD LIFE IN THE TREE TOPS 



would be likely to confuse it with the higher-pitched and more amiable cry 

 of the Rook ; and a Crow is, by comparison, such a solitary bird. 



But even the Crow is not always solitary ; and it is interesting to note 

 how, in the summer evenings, the Crows of the neighbourhood will gather 

 together for the purpose, it would seem, of enjoying the raptures of the evening 

 flight. 



Sometimes as many as twenty or more, where Crows are common, will 

 be in the air at once, playfully stooping at one another, throwing high up into 

 the air, or corkscrew diving towards the earth. Gamekeepers sometimes 

 take advantage of their knowledge of the fact that Crows indulge in these 

 flights, and if one Crow should fall to the gun, the fate of the remainder 

 is usually sealed. For the Crow, although so exceedingly wary, is, like his 

 cousin the Rook, very curious regarding the unaccountable : and on seeing 

 one of the company crumple up in the air, the remainder usually close in to 

 circle above the spot where the battered body is lying, and try to discover 

 the cause of the catastrophe. 



The Crow of course is a very much persecuted bird, and it is amazing 

 to find how, with every man's hand against him, he contrives to exist in such 

 numbers. His life must be one long struggle to avoid the man with the gun, 

 the invisible trap, and the poisoned meat and he would probably have been 

 exterminated by now were it not for the brains with which Providence has 

 blessed him. 



The number of Crows' eggs constituting a clutch seems not to vary nearly 

 so much as in the case of the Rook, for while the latter almost invariably 

 rears from one to six young ones, the Crow's nest almost invariably holds 

 either four or five. 



As a rule the nest is not placed so high in the tree as the Rook's generally 

 is ; for the Crow seems to like rather to construct his home at some point 

 where it is less conspicuous than if it were amongst the topmost twigs, although 

 it is, nevertheless, generally at a very considerable height, and almost always 

 in such a position as to allow the sitting bird a good view of the surrounding 

 country. 



A Crow's nest is an unusually strongly built affair, and has as its foundation 

 a collection of interlaced sticks, many of which are considerably larger than 

 an ordinary pencil in circumference, and sometimes measure a couple of feet 

 in length. Between these, and the inner lining of wads of bullock's hair 

 and wool, is a thick layer of mud, or cow-dung : which, placed in position 

 in the damp state, ultimately dries and forms a firm cup that is not easily 

 penetrated ; which accounts for the fact that a Crow not infrequently flies 

 unscathed from a nest at which a charge of shot has been fired from below. 



I have, during the last two seasons, discovered a couple of Crows' nests 

 which pointed to the fact that they had been constructed by birds of certain 



