296 THE CARRION CROW. 



season, for the purpose of destroying the carrion crows. The fre- 

 quent discharge, too, of the keeper's gun, though it may now and 

 then kill or wound a carrion crow, still will infallibly drive away the 

 game in the end, and oblige it to seek some more favoured and 

 sequestered spot. As to the setting of poison a practice so com- 

 mon with these worthless destroyers of crows, hawks, magpies, jays, 

 and ravens, which they are pleased to style feathered vermin it is 

 a well-known fact that foxes, ducks, dogs, hogs, and pheasants are 

 all liable to fall a prey to the noxious bait. Often has the disap- 

 pointed vulpine sportsman to mark down a blank day in his calendar, 

 on account of his quarry having supped upon what was laid to kill 

 the carrion crow ; and I have reason to believe that the fox some- 

 times loses his life by feeding on carrion crows which have died by 

 poison. 



If we were to sum up, on one side, the probable number of phea- 

 sants and partridges destroyed during one season by the carrion crow ; 

 and, on the other, reckon up how many times the keeper has dis- 

 turbed the game by going in search of this bird, and thus exposed 

 the nests of partridges and pheasants to certain destruction by ver- 

 min of all kinds ; and then, if we take into the account the many heads 

 of game which the keeper had killed in his steel traps and rabbit- 

 snares, we should conclude, I think, that in the long run the game 

 actually surfers more from the keeper, in his attempts to destroy the 

 crow, than it really does from the crow itself, while catering for its 

 young. Indeed, I have made out the account myself; and, finding 

 the balance to be against the keeper, I have renewed the order which 

 I gave to his predecessor, never, upon any score, to persecute what 

 is commonly called flying vermin. Thus the partridges and phea- 

 sants here, during the time of incubation, are abandoned to their 

 own discretion ; and I judge from what I have seen, that old Dame 

 Nature, without any interference on my part, will kindly continue to 

 point out to these birds proper places where to lay their eggs and 

 rear their young ; and, moreover, I am confident she will teach them, 

 by her own admirable and secret process, how to elude the prying 

 scrutiny of the carrion crow. Should, however, the country squire, 

 whose eye is seldom quite closed to the advantages derived from a 

 well-stored autumnal larder; should he, I say, not have sufficient 



