CHAPTER X 



Photographing the Crow 



WE are told in A Catechism of Ornithology, by W. Greathead Lewis 

 (1835), that ' The Crow resembles the Raven in shape, appetites 

 and manners. It is about 18 inches long, and the expansion of its 

 wings is upwards of 2 feet. Its colour is well known, and its habits are extremely 

 disgusting.' 



It is a little difficult to know why the habits of this bird should have made 

 such an unhappy impression upon the author, unless of course it is because it 

 feeds upon Carrion — a characteristic which, by the way, is highly valued in 

 hot climates. 



Had the author said that its habits are extremely exasperating to the 

 seeker after bird photographs, the writer of these lines would have been in 

 entire agreement with him. 



We are inclined, and rightly too, to riegard the Rook as a bird of extraordi- 

 nary discernment ; and yet compared to the Crow he is as an innocent babe. 



Temperamentally the Crow tribe would seem to be the antithesis of the 

 Hobby, which behaved in such a confiding manner ; for such birds would never 

 dream of coming near the nest if they thought there was the least possibility 

 of any human being even so much as watching from a distance ; while they 

 seem to know by instinct whether the strange lump which has appeared by 

 the nest is an empty box or a camera — just as they know whether a dead 

 rabbit or Mallard has fallen unknown to his human persecutors, or whether 

 it has been arranged close to a cunningly hidden trap. 



It is perhaps not generally known what difference exists between the Crow 

 and the Rook — and why a flock of Rooks is often described as a flock of 

 Crows. 



The main difference between the mature Rook and the Crow has already 

 been explained and although it is not easy to identify either of them if it should 

 be some distance away, one can usually tell to which species it belongs by the 

 surroundings, the location of the nest — if there should be one— by the move- 

 ments of the bird, and, particularly, by its voice. No one, I think, who has 

 heard the wild, hollow call of the Crow, which is usually repeated three times, 



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