56 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



but for the rest of humanity they have an undisguised 

 contempt. 



The jackdaw of Rheims was a false bird to the extent of 

 his contrition for the theft committed. Had he been a daw 

 true to his breeding and colour, as far at least as mundane 

 probabilities go, he would have defied and derided the Lord 

 Cardinal's "holy anger," and cared not a sous for the plenary 

 absolution. Crows of all kinds are strong in their self- 

 conceit, though this is best seen abroad amongst the white 

 collared birds of the Transvaal or the slim-built Corvus 

 splendens of the tropics. Here, at home, the crows (with 

 the exception, perhaps, of the rook) shun civilization, keep- 

 ing much to themselves ; nor is it to be wondered at, for 

 constant trapping and shooting is making every one of our 

 six or seven species scarcer each season. 



How can the raven thrive, for instance, when shepherds 

 proclaim he tears the eyes from lambing sheep, and keepers 

 swear he spits in pure wantonness every kind of young 

 animal upon that remorseless black pionard, his beak ! No 

 need to describe his geographical distribution. He is a 

 citizen of the world. " His sable plumage reflects the 

 burning sun of the equator, and his shadow falls upon the 

 region of perpetual snow ; he alights on the jutting peaks 

 of lofty mountains, and haunts the centre of vast untrodden 

 plains ; his hoarse cry startles the depth of the dense primeval 

 forest, and echoes amongst the rocks of lonely islands of the 

 ocean : no ultima thule is terra incognita to him ; arctic and 

 antarctic are both alike the home of the corbie crow." 

 Johnson, the African traveller, found him, pied in colour by 

 the way, when he was fighting and sketching on lonely 

 Killamanjaro in middle Africa, and a raven was the last 

 fresh meat Lieutenant Greely and his starving Americans 

 tasted when they wintered under the bitter crags of Cape 

 Sabine within the arctic ice. 



As far as England is concerned these birds have been 

 driven into the fastnesses of the north, the Welsh hills and 



