70 BIRDS OF THE PLAINS 



at eggs. It is said that it makes no bones about 

 devouring a young bird. I have never seen the creature 

 commit this enormity, but Jerdon is my authority for 

 the fact that " Mr. Smith " has known a bird to enter 

 a covered verandah of a house and nip off half a dozen 

 young geraniums, visit a cage of small birds, begin by 

 stealing the grain, and end by killing and eating the 

 birds, and repeating these visits daily until destroyed. 

 Facilis est descensus Averni. 



This is only one side of the bird's character. I have 

 seen a tree-pie literally obey the Biblical doctrine of 

 turning the smitten cheek to the smiter ; nor, so far as 

 I know, did it, like the well-brought-up boy, after 

 having allowed its second cheek to be smitten, take off 

 its coat and thrash the smiter. The bird in question 

 sat motionless on a branch with a seraphic smile on its 

 face, and appeared to be ignorant of the fact that two 

 little furies, in the shape of fantailed flycatchers, were 

 making puny pecks at its plumage. 



But before discoursing further upon the merits and 

 demerits of our crow in colours, let me describe him. 

 What applies to him applies to her. To the human eye 

 there is no external difference between the two sexes. 

 This by way of introduction. The tree-pie is a foot 

 and a half long, one foot being tail and the remaining 

 inches body. The head, neck, and breast are sooty 

 brown, and the greater part of the remaining plumage 

 is reddish fawn. The wings are brown and silver-grey. 

 The tail is ashy grey broadly tipped with black. It is 

 impossible to mistake a tree-pie ; there is no other bird 

 like it. Its flight is very characteristic, consisting of half 



