A MUCH-ABUSED BIRD. 13 



warfare with a small air-gun. It is needless to say that 

 never a crow is to be seen in his garden. They abound 

 in every other part of the station, but they taboo a circular 

 area, of which the diameter is about 150 yards, with this 

 garden as a centre. Outside the 75 yards radius there is 

 to be seen a regular cordon of crows. They very rarely 

 venture within the circle, and if one does make so bold it 

 takes to its wings the instant anyone raises so much as a 

 stick. Not so the crows outside the radius ; they refuse 

 to budge even when the air-gun is fired at them ; they sit 

 through it all and caw derisively. 



The amusements of crows are as diverse as their food.. 

 Undoubtedly their favourite pastime consists in cawing 

 and cackling to one another to the annoyance of man. After 

 this their most popular recreation is teasing other birds. 

 This they do by swooping down on some unsuspecting bird 

 which is probably half asleep, and thus causing it great 

 alarm. If one may judge from the loud caws of the crows, 

 they are greatly delighted at the fright of the victim of 

 their little joke. Sliding down a cow's tail is another form 

 of amusement in which I have seen the crows of our station 

 indulge. A crow having finished his search for ticks in the 

 skin of the cow, hops along the latter's back until he reaches 

 the tail, which he then grips loosely with his claws, and 

 slides slowly down in a way similar to that in which a small 

 boy likes to slip down the balustrade of the staircase. As 

 soon as he reaches the knobby portion at the extremity of 

 the cow's tail, the crow takes to his wings and alights on 

 the quadruped's back, and again proceeds to repeat the 

 game. The cow does not appear to resent in the least the 

 strange use to which the crows put her tail ; perhaps she 

 allows them the use of it as a quid pro quo for the service 

 they have performed in ridding her of the ticks which cause 

 her so much annoyance. 



