CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE 195 



discovered the black object to be a mere bit of 

 clod ! I imagine he looked around to make sure 

 no crow was watching him, then walked uncon- 

 cernedly down again. I could trace him by the 

 fresh tracks, up and down. The second crow had 

 come from the opposite direction and had gone 

 through exactly the same series of manoeuvres. I 

 chuckled at their stupidity. 



There had been a' flurry of soft snow early in 

 the morning, and most of it was collected along 

 the road. The crow tracks in this soft carpet 

 were even more distinct than any I had noticed 

 before. The impressions of the warts on the 

 various joints of the toes were there and the 

 tapering cuts made by the claws. I followed one 

 track for some distance over the soft snow till it 

 suddenly stopped. For a moment I was at a loss 

 to know how my crow could get away and leave 

 no track. Then I found out. On either side of 

 the trail near its end were great marks, as if the 

 claw of some large animal had scratched the snow. 

 A little farther on were more scratches. They 

 had been made by the stiff quills of the crow's 

 wings as he took flight. I began to like crows. 



I bent my steps toward the first of a series of 

 small brooks which found their way through this 

 field, all bound for the same level, the flats below 

 the town. In autumn I had gathered the fragrant 

 mint just where the road crosses the first stream, 

 and in a vague way I wondered if it were still 

 growing as fresh as in October. On my last visit 

 in November I could find no traces of the skunk 



