20 WILD SCENES AND SONG BIRDS. 



tear at some liver hanging on the fence rails, and down he 

 would dip as quick as lightning, behind the wood-pile next 

 the fence, and when I would fire impatiently with the hope 

 to secure him, he would fly, cawing, off, rising in triumph 

 to the tops of the highest trees, with his prey in his mouth. 



This was repeated day after day, for nearly a week, with 

 about the .same results, he still returning in unyielding au- 

 dacity for his prey, in the teeth of all my threatening efforts. 

 I had sworn vengeance against this particular crow, and at 

 last hit upon what I conceived to be an admirable expedient. 

 I put up a little board house near the corner where he fed, 

 and having formed it large enough to conceal my body, 

 made a small esquimaux ambuscade, or hunting-lodge of it, 

 by covering it above, and on all side's, with snow, leaving a 

 little loop-hole, chinked with snow, that could easily be 

 pushed out with my gun-barrel, and a small window, through 

 which I could barely see the place where I expected the crow 

 to alight, and where I had placed a most tempting great 

 piece of liver for a bait. 



I had studiously accomplished this work between sundown 

 and dusk, the time when the crows had all gone to roost. In 

 the morning, about 10 o'clock, I crawled into my hunting- 

 lodge, thinking I should have him now for sure ; I had to 

 sit not more than an hour, when, with palpitating heart, I 

 heard above me his noisy caw. I had concealed my body 

 carefully, because I knew he inspected, while on the wing, 

 all the premises. He approached my old hiding-place very 

 cautiously, mounting high in the air ; when seeming to be 

 satisfied, he poised himself for a moment, and came down 

 in a slanting direction towards the liver, with something of 

 the quick movement of a hawk's swoop I clutched my gun, 

 preparing to fire the moment he should alight. He had to 

 pass, of course, near my little lodge, that I thought had been 

 so dexterously concealed, in imitation of a pile of wood and 

 snow, but, while yet on the swoop, the crow seeing, I suppose, 

 that there was something suspicious in that corner of the wood, 



