82 THE OAKRTON CBOW. 



after year, notwithstanding the gun and the snare, and the scare- 

 crow, and the rewards offered for their destruction, swarming 

 they alight upon the rich corn lands, when the seed is newly 

 deposited in the earth, or just as the green blade begins to peep 

 above the surface ; and the unlucky farmer sees his hopes of an 

 abundant harvest frustrated by this feathered marauder, who, as 

 WILSON says, " hovers over the fields of the industrious, fattening 

 on their labours, and, by his voracity, often blasting their expec- 

 tations." 



It has been urged in defence of the Crow, that he is a great 

 destroyer of worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, grubs, beetles, and 

 such like agricultural pests, and perhaps if it were possible to 

 calculate the amount of good which he effects in this way. and 

 set it against a fair sum total of his mischievous workings, we 

 should find that he is not so ^reat an enemy to man after all ; 

 as this, however, is impossible, we must be content to let the 

 stigma rest upon his character, and to see him proscribed as a 

 thief and a villanous depredator. Lawless, however, as may be 

 their dealings with man, it seems that among themselves the 

 crow? have a code of laws which are somewhat strictly observed ; 

 no less a penalty than death being sometimes inflicted on offenders 

 against them. Here is an account of the holding of one of their 

 courts of justice, taken from Landt's Description of the Fcroe 

 Islands: 



" Those extraordinary assemblages, which may be called Crow- 

 courts, are observed here (in the Feroe Islands) as well as in the 

 Scotch isles ; they collect in great numbers, as if they had been 

 all summoned for the occasion. A few of the flock sit with 

 drooping heads ; others seem as grave as if they were judges, and 

 some are exceedingly active and noisy, like lawyers and wit- 

 nesses : in the course of about half an hour the company gene- 

 rally disperse ; and it is not uncommon, after they have flown 

 away, to find one or two left dead on the spot." 



MUDIE says of these birds that they are not found in the High- 

 lands and northern isles of Scotland : perhaps it would have been 

 better to have said not commonly found there ; as their presence 

 in the Feroe Isles would seem to indicate that they would, at 

 least, occasionally visit the Hebrides, and other outlyrng parts of 

 Scotland, as well as the northern coast. M TILLER includes the 

 (7. cdrone among the birds of Denmark ; and M. NILSSON says it 

 is found in Sweden, although rarely: in Norway and Iceland 

 also it is sometimes seen. And now, turning our glance south- 

 ward, we may mention that it is an inhabitant of Germany, 

 France, Spain, Provence, and Italy, in which countries it inha- 

 bits the woods from spring to autumn, and the plains during 

 the winter. According to TEMMINCK, it is found in the Morea, 



