12 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



woman " sits frying her cakes under the lonely " pandal " of her cadjan hut, and over her, with head 

 inclined, taking a bird's-eye view of her cookery, sits the " caca ;" and now the "appah" (Anglice, 

 " hopper ") is done, lifted from the pan, and laid on the little circular basket ready for a customer. 

 With a grunt of satisfaction the aged crone surveys her handiwork, and drops her spoon to feel for her 

 beloved betel-pouch. A tiresome little bit of areca nut has got into a corner, and the old dame bends 

 over it, unmindful of her charge. A dark figure drops from the roof, and though she is instantly on 

 the alert, and aims an ineffectual blow at the thief, the nice white " appah " is borne off. Sometimes, 

 however, the robber has but a poor hold on it, and drops it on the red cabook road. Down pounce a 

 host of Crows that have been looking on from many a tree, and a scuffle ensues ; but anxious at least 



to cheat them of their booty, if 

 not to retain the damaged article 

 for her own eating, the old woman 

 hurries to the rescue. But this 

 makes matters worse ; the castle is 

 defenceless, and unseen foes drop 

 down from beam and rafter or fly 

 in through open doors. The rice- 

 basket is invaded, the chilli-box 

 overturned, the dried fish stolen, 

 and lucky is the dame if the crash 

 of most of her little store of 

 crockery and glass, swept to the 

 ground and scattered in shining 

 fragments, does not hastily recall 

 her to her hut.' 



" This account is by no means 

 overdrawn, for to the natives of 

 the bazaars the Crow is an utter 

 pest. I question, however, whether 

 his absence from the towns would 

 not in the end lead to much harm, 

 for he is a most useful scavenger, 

 and clears the streets and back 

 premises of everything thrown out 

 from the houses, which would 

 otherwise speedily decompose in 

 the rays of the tropical sun. Not- 

 withstanding its utter disregard 

 for the native (which is so great 

 that I have seen one pounce on 

 to a basket carried on a boy's 

 head and seize from it a cake or a fruit), it entertains a marked respect for the white man, and 

 stands in a wholesome dread of the gun, flying off the moment a stick even is pointed at it ; and 

 so quick-sighted is it that it espies any one trying to stalk it, and decamps at once, though it 

 has not seen the gun in the enemy's hand ! 



" At certain hours in the clay these Crows assemble in large flocks, and hold a noisy parlance which 

 lasts for some time. At Colombo it was usually on the beach at the ' Galle Buck,' over an evening 

 meal on sandflies, which they are very fond of, or engaged in pranks with the hermit-crabs, that the 

 affairs of the day seemed to be discussed. Often at midday a noisy meeting would take place on the 

 banks of the lake, and while several dozen birds held an angry debate on some fellow Crow who was 

 posted in the middle of the circle, others would bathe up to the thighs in the water, ducking them- 

 selves and splashing in all directions. A striking instance of the Crow's love of mischief and his 

 innate impudence was exemplified at Colombo in his habit of annoying the unoffending little Grebes 



NUTCRACKER. 



