160 SPRING. 



or three will be labouring hard at a half frozen field ; 

 a stranger will alight, and a good deal of huddling to- 

 gether, and flapping of wings and cawing, will ensue, 

 which, if they were men, would be very good signs of 

 a messenger having arrived and a consultation held 

 thereupon. We have often watched those " crows' 

 councils," and the result has been that sometimes the 

 stranger has remained with those whom he visited; 

 sometimes the whole have flown off we know not 

 whither; and sometimes they have settled in our 

 sight upon a place where food was more easily 

 procured. 



Now if one were to be fond of making theories, 

 each and all of these circumstances might be cited as 

 a proof of the existence of memory, judgment, and a 

 reasonable portion of intellect ; but then there are 

 some anomalies in the case which stagger our belief, 

 and force us to confine ourselves to what we actually 

 see. We have known the same nest for several suc- 

 cessive years ; have seen the old birds in the act of 

 repairing it ; we have seen it during the time that 

 it was unten anted, and we have known the broods, 

 whenever they were what those who love such a nox- 

 ious dish as a rook pie, or rather, perhaps, who love 

 to kill birds merely from " a settled natural course of 

 so doing," call " branched," that is, able to quit the 

 nest, but not to trust themselves out of the nursing 

 tree, all shot successively by the sportsman : and yet 

 with all their wisdom and memory, the birds continued 

 to build on year after year, as if their family had been 

 all fortunate in the world. That single fact made us 

 doubt the whole theory of the memory and judgment; 



