44 The Amateur Poacher 



diately under the ice, they could be easily shot. The 

 pellets cut a round hole through an inch and a half of 

 ice. The jack now basking in the pond was the more 

 tempting because we had often tried to wire him in 

 vain. The difficulty was to get him if hit. While I 

 was deliberating a crow came flying low down the leaze, 

 and alighted by the pond. His object, no doubt, was 

 a mussel. He could not have seen me, and yet no 

 sooner did he touch the ground than he looked un- 

 easily about, sprang up, and flew straight away, as if 

 he had smelt danger. Had he stayed he would have 

 been shot, though it would have spoiled my ambush : 

 the idea of the crows picking out the eyes of dying 

 creatures was always peculiarly revolting to me. 



If the pond was a haunt of his, it was too near the 

 young partridges, which were weakly that season. A 

 kestrel is harmless compared to a crow. Surely the 

 translators have wrongly rendered Don Quixote's 

 remark that the English did not kill crows, believing 

 that King Arthur, instead of dying, was by enchant- 

 ment turned into one, and so fearing to injure the 

 hero. Must he not have meant a rook ? * 



Soon afterwards something moved out of the 

 mound into the meadow a long distance up : it was a 



' It has since been pointed out to me that the Don may have meant 

 « raven. 



