i6 



KNOWLEDGE. 



[Febbuaey 1, 1897. 



from the snow, and down he comes, cut short m that 

 puzzUng zig-zag flight. " Lucky shot," says my com- 

 panion, to which I vouchsafe no reply. 



A long way off we can see a flight of hooded crows 

 making for the 

 mud, so we run 

 to the bank and 

 crouch under 

 it. In three 

 or four minutes 

 the first crow is 

 right over our 

 heads ; he sees 

 the danger, and 

 immediately his 

 lazy flap be- 

 comes a quick 

 rush ; but too 

 late — the shot 

 brings him 

 down, and there 

 he lies black 

 and grey in the 

 green grass. 

 However, he 

 has saved his 

 brethren, for 

 they hear the 

 gun and see his 

 fall, and turn- 

 ing back take a 

 big curve to the 

 right. 



If any birds 

 are cruel, cer- 

 tainly it is the 

 hooded and the 

 carrion crows. 

 We always 

 make a point 

 of killing them 

 whenever possi- 

 ble. They de- 

 stroy every egg 

 and small bird 

 they can, and 

 worry every 

 weak or sickly 

 thing they find, 

 as "A Son of 

 the Marshes " 

 has pathetical- 

 ly illustrated in 

 one of the ac- 

 companying en- 

 gravings. The 

 hooded crow is abundant 

 the summer, but not in 

 ever, great flocks come 



The Wouxded Habe. 



" No more the tliickening brakes and verdant plains 

 To tliee shall home, or food, or pastime j-icld." 



Reproduced from a painting by *'A Son of the Mai'sUes." 



in Ireland and Scotland during 

 England. In the autumn, how- 

 over from Scandinavia and the 

 Continent, and they thus become very numerous on our 

 east coast in winter. They are exceedingly difficult birds 

 to approach, being extremely wary and watchful. 



For instance, at high tide these birds delight to feed 

 along the edge of the water just under the sea-bank. We 

 have often tried to stalk them by creeping along the other 

 side of the bank, but the crows are very seldom outwitted 

 by this device. Every minute or two one of them flies up 

 a short distance and takes a look round, and immediately 

 sees the man on the other side of the bank, gives the alarm, 



and away they all fly, to settle a couple of hundred yards 

 or so further ofi'. One soon gives up that way of trying to 

 outwit a hooded crow. 



My last piece of work this day, which was altogether an 



unlucky one, 

 was a long stalk 

 for a grey 

 plover. We had 

 marked him 

 down on the 

 mud within 

 easy shot of the 

 edge of the salt- 

 ings. To get to 

 the edge with- 

 out his seeing 

 me was the 

 difficulty. I 

 start by walk- 

 ing with body 

 bent, in the wet 

 clinging mud 

 along the 

 bottom of a 

 winding creek, 

 then comes a 

 snake -like 

 crawl through 

 the snow across 

 to another 

 creek ; another 

 crouch and 

 another crawl 

 bring me to the 

 edge of a creek, 

 which winds 

 right up to the 

 very place I 

 wish to reach. 

 I begin to count 

 the grey plover 

 my own, when 

 turningacorner 

 I come in full 

 view of two red- 

 shanks feeding 

 by a pool. Now 

 I know my 

 careful, trying 

 stalk is all in 

 vain. The 

 shankersseeme 

 and up they get, 

 yelping as only 

 the " cussed 

 yelpers," as fen- 

 men call them, can. One pays the penalty, and his skin is 

 now in my cabinet, but that grey plover never will be mine. 

 The engra\'ings illustrating this article are from 

 original oil paintings by " A Son of the Marshes," and 

 have been very kindly lent by Alfred Beaumont, Esq., of 

 Blackheath, Kent. 



-♦ 



S((tn« Notes. 



DuKiNG the last fifty years much work has been done by 

 marine naturalists all round the British coasts, with a 

 view to determining the distribution of those animals 

 which live on the floor of the sea. It has been fully 



