From Fox's Earth 



birds were absent, turning the leaves or searching 

 the lawn for food for their young. It was an 

 idyllic picture, into which came a dark shadow, 

 which fell on and enveloped the nest. A carrion 

 crow bore off as many as his feet and beak would 

 hold. 



The likeness of habit is best seen when the 

 two are together. The crows come down to 

 the sea to share with the gulls. They are the 

 experter, the sharper ; and where is any scarcity 

 and competition they outwit their duller rivals. 

 They make the better scouts. They are early up 

 and along the shore to see what has been cast in 

 by the last tide. One whose duty lies that way, 

 and whose hour is the dawn, tells me that he was 

 never abroad before the crow. Many stay all 

 winter, some all the year round. On the back of 

 storm, multitudes come down, as though they 

 scented the spoils of the sea from afar. 



And the gulls go up-country, not necessarily 

 for such hours of comparative innocence and 

 idyllic charm, at least for the onlooker, as they 

 pass in the furrow near the windy elms and 

 in the wake of the picturesque peasant. They 

 are found at the feast on the hillside. Then does 

 the lesser black-back most resemble the carrion 

 crow, and the greater black-back the raven, when 

 all four are at some unsavoury or nefarious piece 

 of work. 



Every one's hand is against the crow. The 

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