274 Old White Wing 



family cares lessening his well-known vigilance, he 

 might be captured. 



During the spring I made a close study of Old 

 White Wing and his band, and I soon became con- 

 vinced that he was no common crow. The third 

 week in March the band became very noisy, and 

 soon there were signs of departing for their summer 

 homes. The noise was due to a general meeting 

 of the crows of the roost, and a kind of introduction 

 among the young crows, preliminary to mating. The 

 males were performing strange gymnastics in the air 

 and' indulging in short contests of flight before their 

 admiring lady birds. Now was the season for me to 

 discover Old White Wing's domestic secrets. 



Early one morning, as I was returning from a 

 search for owls, and was about to emerge from a 

 deep ravine at the foot of Hall's Hill, I saw a crow 

 flying up the valley toward the place where I was 

 standing. The sides of the ravine were covered with 

 deciduous and evergreen trees and a dense growth 

 of underbrush, and farther up the ravine the large 

 trees were mostly hemlocks, an ideal situation for a 

 crow's nest. As I had not been seen by the bird, I 

 stepped behind a cluster of trees and waited. In a 

 few moments the crow passed, and I saw that it 

 was Old White Wing. I beHeved that now I had a 



