76 LIFE AND SPORT IN HAMPSHIRE 



pigeons. In spring we can hardly watch for five 

 minutes a few pigeons on a roof without seeing the 

 strut and bow. Wild pigeons bow, too. The tame 

 pigeon keeps his bows till the hen is at hand, and can 

 be walked or run round and round. But the carrion 

 crow bows as the rook in March sings whether the 

 hen is present or not. 



As for the voice of a crow during these monstrous 

 idylls, I can detect no softening of it ; the rook's voice 

 distinctly softens, grows more melodious in early 

 spring, but the crow's seems " past improvement " a 

 voice for some cave kitchen where a witch stirs in 

 the cauldron her soup of newt and adder. 



