142 FAMILIAR FEATURES OF THE ROADSIDE. 



own patience and willingness to stand or sit still for an 

 indefinite period. As there are many restless people 

 wlio can not do this, I am inclined to believe that 

 they are the only ones who never can become the 

 favored friends of squirrels and birds. It is doubt- 

 ful, however, whether even inanimate stones are 

 counted as friends by the wary crow — that steely 

 blue-black * beauty of the cornfield. He is a cynic 

 of the bird family, suspicious of everything and 

 everybody, to whom the merest novelty (no matter 

 what its nature) is part of a plot for his destruction. 

 A dozen or so of four-foot sticks, connected by harm- 

 less lines of white twine, placed here and there in the 

 cornfield, are, according to his way of thinking, a 

 sulistantial menace to public safety — that is, the safety 

 of the tribe, Corvus Amerioamis. But the crow is 

 wily ; he is sagacious beyond calculation, and he fully 

 understands the value of sentinel duty. Before we 

 can get within gunshot of the ten maraudei-s which 

 we see are plainly engaged in " hoeing the farmer's 

 corn," a sharp signal " caw-r-rrr " comes from the 

 edge of the copse near by — the game is up, and the 

 birds are flown ! 



The crow's nest is a rough affair, built high up in 



* The beautiful iridescent black of the crow's feathers is no 

 ordinary color; its brilliancy is unattainable so far as the artist's 

 paint box is concerned. 



