56 CORVINE. 



account of this bird forms an interesting illustration of 

 the general habits of the species : " His curiosity is be- 

 yond bounds, never failing to examine anything new to 

 him : if the gardener is pruning, he examines the nail-box, 

 carries off the nails, and scatters the shreds about. Should 

 a ladder be left against the wall, he instantly mounts, and 

 goes all round the top of the wall ; and, if hungry, de- 

 scends at a convenient place, and immediately travels to 

 the kitchen window, where he makes an incessant knock- 

 ing with his bill till he is fed or let in ; if allowed to 

 enter, his first endeavour is to get up stairs ; and if not 

 interrupted, goes as high as he can, and gets into any 

 room in the attic story ; but his intention is to get upon 

 the top of the house. He is excessively fond of being 

 caressed, and would stand quietly by the hour to be 

 smoothed ; but resents an affront with violence and effect, 

 by both bill and claws, and will hold so fast by the latter, 

 that he is with difficulty disengaged. Is extremely at- 

 tached to one lady, upon the back of whose chair he will 

 sit for hours ; and is particularly fond of making one in a 

 party at breakfast, or in a summer's evening at the tea- 

 table in the shrubbery. His natural food is evidently the 

 smallest insects, even in the minute species he picks out of 

 the crevices of the walls, and searches for them in summer 

 with great diligence. The common grasshopper is a great 

 dainty, and the fern-chaffer is another favourite morsel ; 

 these are swallowed whole ; but if the great chaffer be 

 given to him, he places it under one foot, pulls it to pieces, 

 and eats it by piecemeal. Worms are wholly rejected ; 

 but flesh, raw or dressed, and bread, he eats greedily, and 

 sometimes barley with the pheasants, and other granivo- 

 rous birds occasionally turned into the gardens, and never 

 refuses hemp-seed. He seldom attempts to hide the re- 



