PERCHING BIRDS. 137 



Was beyond their powers, and no sooner had the third 

 person left the field than they hurried to the spoil, but 

 only, alas ! to leave two of their number dead on the 

 field, victims to the want of a knowledge of numeration.* 



I met with an interesting account of the sagacity of 

 the rook in the Dundee Courier a few years since. Its 

 truthfulness was vouched for by the gentleman who com- 

 municated it, and by the editor : 



" On Saturday week a very curious scene occurred in 

 the colony of crows on the South Inch, Perth. One of 

 the black denizens had been laboriously occupied in 

 conveying sticks from the opposite side of the river, 

 wherewith to build his nest, when something seemed to 

 strike him that he was making no progress in its erec- 

 tion, and that he was the victim of some thievish neigh- 

 bour. That his suspicions were correct he soon dis- 

 covered, and evidently adopted the following plan to 

 detect the culprit. He set off apparently to cross 

 the river, and kept his usual way, but on reaching 

 the island he suddenly wheeled round, and sweeping 

 behind the lime sheds he reached his nest just in time 

 to catch the suspected rogue in the very act of robbing 

 him of a stick. A fierce engagement ensued, lasting 

 several minutes, when the thief clearly having the worst 

 of the fight, was compelled to render justice to his in- 

 jured neighbour by restoring his stolen property, as for 

 nearly half an hour after, the latter was seen to carry 

 stick after stick from the other's nest without any mo- 

 lestation, and apply them to his own." 



* A similar instance is given by Macgillivray of the carrion 

 crow, from an account communicated to him by Mr. Weir, but in 

 this case the crow proved a worse arithmetician than the rooks I 

 have mentioned. 



