106 WILD LIFE IN THE TREE TOPS 



ultimately visit the nest he pulled the string so hard that the shutter became 

 detached from the front of the lens ! ! 



But in the end, and after two weeks of unsuccessful efforts, one photograph, 

 and one only, of the Crow at her nest was secured, which is reproduced among 

 these pages. 



Young Crows are fed by the old ones for some time after they are able 

 to fly, and may be seen following with fluttering wings in the wake of the 

 parent as he — or she — struts here and there on the look out for suitable food. 



The Crow, like the Rook, feeds largely upon the larvae of various insects ; 

 but is also very partial to the flesh of dead animals, or birds, which it may 

 find Ijdng in an open place, such as the middle of a marsh, and invariably first 

 extracts and swallows the eye which is uppermost, before troubling to get at 

 any other more succulent portion ! 



The photograph of the young Crow, which also appears in these pages, 

 was taken in the Doone country, and shows a nest which was built in quite 

 a low hawthorn-tree growing from the side of a steep and rocky bank. 



When we found the nest it contained four young Crows, which, unhappily 

 for us, were almost ready to fly. 



Had the nest belonged to any other bird, we should, no doubt, have ob- 

 tained some unusually pictorial results, showing the old bird and her family ; 

 but since it was a Crow, we were doomed to disappointment. For the parent 

 birds, by calling to the young from a distance, induced them to attempt the 

 first flight, and it was by good luck rather than judgment that we succeeded 

 in getting a picture of the last of the young ones a few moments before he 

 too went off into the world. 



