66 BIRD LIFE IN ENGLAND. 



knock him off the roof ridge or wrench away the meat he 

 has stolen from the kitchen ; pariah dogs come on him round 

 the corner and shortly dine on " black game." Has the 

 " mem- sahib " lost a silk handkerchief ? Then it must be 



that rascally crow on the cotton tree who has taken it, 



and forthwith the " butler wallah " attaches an appetizing bit 

 of meat to a couple of feet of string and throws it into the 

 compound. At the other end of the string is a small stone, 

 and when the bird of sable plumage swoops down and flies 

 off exultantly with the morsel in his beak, the string very 

 speedily swings itself round his body, and the result is an 

 ignominious tumble to earth, and an inglorious scuffle on the 

 sand till native fingers loosen the tangle. But then begins 

 the worst part of this proceeding for Corvus splendens. He 

 is taken into the shed, which goes by the name of kitchen 

 in India, and plucked remorselessly, being divorced from 

 every vestige of plumage, as he struggles and kicks between 

 the butler's knees ; and then, in this plight truly a sorry 

 one he is released, to die of melancholia, we should fancy, 

 on the nearest roof top, for a live plucked crow, " naked and 

 ashamed," is about the most woe-begone spectacle in orni- 

 thology that can be imagined. 



Native children are also proficient in capturing the much- 

 abused crow. A lively and strong bird is obtained, little 

 used to such indignities, and is pegged down to the ground 

 in the open on his back with forked twigs, which are driven 

 in over his wing^bones. He very speedily lets the whole 

 neighbourhood hear of his misfortune, and the wild birds, 

 flocking round him, crowd so close that at length one is 

 seized in the sufferer's claws, and convulsively held until 

 the fowler rushes from his ambush, and secures it for 

 himself. 



Then, again, comes the bitter part, for the birds Apollo 

 loved are taken, and after suffering numberless indignities 

 at the hands of their small tormentors, each receive a daub 

 of cobbler's wax on its beak, between the eyes, and in this 



