A MUCH-ABUSED BIRD. n 



The characteristic of the crow is his adaptability. The 

 majority of birds and beasts are unable to adapt them- 

 selves to any marked change in their environment. Not so- 

 the crow. He is to all the other birds what the Yankee is 

 to the rest of mankind. He can make himself at home 

 anywhere. If ever a bold adventurer reaches the North 

 Pole he may be tolerably certain of finding a colony of 

 crows there. Perhaps the most striking instance of the 

 adaptability of the crow is furnished by the immortal 

 Calcutta bird who built her nest with the wires of soda- 

 water bottles. Even as I write there are before my eyes 

 eight crows who have discovered that a bath put out into 

 the garden by the artistic bheestie, makes an excellent 

 drinking trough. 



The crow offers further proofs of his versatility in the 

 divers ways in which he obtains his food. The common 

 Indian crow was probably originally almost purely a 

 carrion feeder. Although they to this day do eat carrion 

 they have discovered so many other kinds of food that it 

 is probable that some crows go through life without tasting 

 what was once their usual diet. Nowadays the commonest 

 food of the crow is the fragments cast away by men white 

 and coloured. The crow is not hampered by caste preju- 

 dices ; he revels in the meat left by the sweeper equally 

 with the rice that has fallen from the Brahman's table. 

 More acceptable than either are the leavings which are 

 thrown away by the European's servants. The crows of 

 the neighbourhood soon learn the hour at which these are 

 pitched out, and make a point of being present. Crows, 

 indeed, are always on the look out for a human being 

 feeding, for they know that when he has finished there will 

 always be left some fragments for them. Hence the smoke 

 of a camp fire will invariably attract some crows, for they 

 have learned to associate a fire with man's feeding. Insects, 

 too, do not come amiss to crows. When the white ants 

 swarm the clever birds may be seen actively engaged in 

 catching them on the wing; and a flight of locusts is quite an 



