400 LAW AND PUNISHMENT. 



among cows are ' as clearly defined as those of any European 

 Court. Every cow knows her own place and keeps it. She 

 will not condescend to take a lower, and would not be allowed 

 to take a higher.' We know, moreover, that military horses 

 and elephants are great sticklers for rank, insisting on occu- 

 pying that place in processions or pageants to which they 

 believe their own rank or that of their riders entitles them. 



One of the evidences commonly adduced of the reign of 

 law among the lower animals, as in man, is the fact that 

 certain birds at least have what are, or what appear to be, 

 regular judicial proceedings, regular trials by judge and 

 before jury of culprits against law. Illustrations of such 

 trials are to be found in the absurdly so-called 'parliaments' 

 of rooks, crows, or other birds. 



The various authors who have described them, and who 

 profess to be able to interpret the curious phenomena, speak 

 of the vast assemblages of birds of the same species at some 

 given point and at some given time, the birds coming from 

 all points of the compass. In the centre is placed a prisoner ; 

 his aspect, look, attitude, point him out frequently as, in his 

 own estimation, a culprit. Advocates address the audience ; 

 there are even pleadings, consultations, and deliberations. 

 At last a judgment is come to, sentence is passed, and popu- 

 lar as well as judicial vengeance is inflicted with wonderful 

 unanimity and co-operation. The whole stages of the pro- 

 cedure, in fact, resemble in miniature and in pantomime 

 those of our own law courts. Hence some authors speak of 

 such assemblies as ' courts,' and the natives of India de- 

 scribe certain gatherings of the Indian crow as of this 

 character. 



In these courts or parliaments of the Indian crow the 

 birds form a ring around one individual, 'who appears to 

 have been an offender against some of the rules of their 

 society.' Then he is attacked suddenly by five or six of his 

 fellows, 'pecking at him and striking at him with their 

 wings ' (Wood). 



Crow parliaments in Shetland have been described by 

 Edmonstone and Saxby, who, however, differently interpret 

 the facts observed, while the facts themselves are not the 



