THE HOODED-CROW 59 



highroads, in order to seize upon anything eatable, how- 

 ever bad its condition. 



And now let us investigate its actions, which divide 

 men into two camps, one of which states that the 

 Hooded Crow is harmful, the other that it is service- 

 able. First, as to the harm. It is true that this bird 

 considers a young chicken a great delicacy, and so, takes 

 one when it has a chance. But this happens very rarely, 

 for the good mother-hen flies at the marauder, and raises 

 a cry that brings out the people of the house to see what 

 is the matter, and the Crow has to beat a retreat, without 

 having secured its prey or run the risk of having a 

 wing broken by a stone, a rolling-pin, or other missile. 

 Should it succeed in securing a chicken, then indeed it 

 has done harm, but this happens so rarely, that the 

 housekeeper does not make much account of it. It is also 

 true that it attacks the timid little hares in the fields, and 

 if the mother is absent, the young ones are quickly des- 

 troyed, and torn to pieces by two or three blows of the 

 strong beak. In this case it is the sportsman who is 

 most annoyed, for the farmer is no friend of the hare, 

 which does great harm in the winter by gnawing the 

 fruit trees. It is a known fact also that the Crow robs 

 the nests of birds which are built on the ground in the 

 fields, when it finds them. This also is harm, but the 

 little birds exhibit wonderful instinct in hiding their 

 nests, so that even the sharp-eyed Crow can rarely find 

 one, especially when we consider that its attention is 

 constantly being diverted from the search by a fat cricket 

 or grasshopper, or a mouse slipping hurriedly by. 

 Neither can it be denied that when the ears of maize are 

 young and soft the Crows opens the husk with its beak 

 and regales itself with the milky juice. This is indeed 



