102 DEEK- SHOOTING AND OTHER MATTERS. 



cliffs, and suchlike places, partaking, as it were, partly 

 of the habits of the raven and partly of the rook. 

 They are most impertinent birds. I remember once 

 being very much amused watching a girl washing some 

 plates outside a cottage-door. Six or eight of these 

 cool inquisitive birds were on the ground, not two feet 

 from her hands, and every now and then two or 

 three would hop in and pick at something which fell 

 from the dishes, the girl constantly switching her cloth 

 at the black birds to keep them from pecking her fingers. 

 The coolness of these kindly-treated feathered friends of 

 the Japanese is everywhere the same. They do good 

 particularly in the fishing villages, by picking up re- 

 mains of fish, and anything of such nature, that finds 

 its way into the streets. 



Many a good bag of geese I have made on the flat 

 rice plains outside Tokio (the capital), and wild and 

 difficult were these birds to approach ; but walking on 

 into the capital, and in the heart of the great city, there 

 the very birds — swan, geese, and all kinds of ducks — 

 which outside on the plains had got up wild and wary, 

 were congregated in the moat surrounding the palace 

 grounds. Hundreds of people keep passing up and 

 down within half a stone's-throw ; yet here, from time 

 immemorial, have these birds flown in, and remained 



