BIRDS AND MEN 153 



dog howls and hides his face in her skirt for protection, 

 but neither of them is ever hurt. In the autumn he took a 

 great fancy to a family of pups who lived next door, and 

 would insist on getting over the wall as often as possible 

 to have a game with them and their mother. She, a 

 collie, and only a pup herself, thought it a great joke, and 

 danced about, shaking her head, and beating him down 

 with her fore-paws. At last the games became so rough 

 that they had to be stopped, for fear of James coming 

 to grief. He is very sociable, and an energetic dancer. 

 His great delight is to come into the house, and he 

 demands admittance by determined knocks with his beak 

 at the back door or scullery window. Fierce as he was 

 when we first knew him, he now enjoys nothing more 

 than being stroked, holding his head down and chattering 

 the while. He is very clean, and even during the winter 

 he taps impatiently at the window in order that he may 

 come in and have his bath. The cold-water tap is turned 

 on for him, and he walks to and fro under it, splashing 

 himself to his heart's content. He is a fine bird, with a 

 strong personality, and insists on having his own way." 



April 27, 1901. 



NOTE. This gracious biography of the crow is a revolu- 

 tionary corrective of our normal view of him. In the 

 country the crow is a solitary bird, though uxorious 

 withal ; in London he is as sociable as rooks are. 

 As we should say, he is a reformed character ; as he 

 would say, I " the great sub-natural chief of the kingdom 

 of birds/' as Macgillivray very justly called me, am appre- 

 ciated here at my proper valuation, and being no longer 

 treated as a pariah, I scorn to act like one." The crows 

 of my neighbourhood have become civilized, and take life 

 with a serenity, a complacence, a grave amiability inter- 

 rupted by a " cheerfulness," expressed in a kind of ram- 

 pagious gusto (like a professor letting himself go at a 

 children's party), "always breaking in." Mr. Coward 



