II. 



A MUCH-ABUSED BIRD. 



A T all times and in all ages the crow appears to have 

 " incurred the displeasure of man. At any rate writers 

 seem with one accord to have combined to abuse that 

 sagacious bird. And one species of crow the common 

 Indian one, Corvus splendens has come in for more vilifi- 

 cation than all the rest of the crow tribe put together. 

 Even the staid Jerdon " often regrets that such an inappro- 

 priate specific name should have been applied to this species, 

 for it tends to bring into ridicule, among the unscientific, 

 the system of nomenclature." Hodgson, too, would have 

 none of this waggish name ; he would call a spade a spade, 

 and the Indian crow Corvus impudicus. According to 

 Phil. Robinson, " crows are indubitably the connecting 

 link between devils Class 3, inventors of all mischief, 

 Prince Belial at their head ; and Class 4 malicious devils, 

 under Prince Asmodeus." " Eha " has never been able to 

 discover any shred of grace about a crow. " Even a con- 

 sistent career of crime," writes he, " must be less demoralis- 

 ing than the aimless vagabondage by which it maintains 

 itself. " From quotations such as these it is evident that the 

 crow will bear a little white-washing. The strong point in 

 the crow's case is that he might have been worse. For 

 sheer wickedness the crow is not in the same street as the 

 cuckoo. Compared with the villainy of the latter the crimes 

 of the former are tame affairs. For what are they ? Profanity, 

 theft, greed and general " cussedness" fairly exhaust the 

 list. Let us in the true scientific spirit consider these 

 corvine sins in order. For the profanity of the crow I can 

 vouchsafe. Only last week I heard one swear. It happened 

 in this wise. I was walking along the dusty cart track, 



