3o IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



to climb the pine-tree clad in overalls to protect us 

 from pitch, and armed with a ball of twine with a 

 small cloth bag tied to one end. The operation had 

 to be conducted in May, for the crow breeds early. 

 If the birds were found to be too young, experience 

 taught us it was better to wait a few days. If, 

 however, the silly, homely little things had grown 

 feathers enough to bear a family resemblance to 

 their parents instead of to a lump of animated coal- 

 tar, the most aggressive bird would be lifted from 

 the nest, put as gently as possible into the bag, and 

 lowered by the cord to the ground, where another 

 boy was waiting — not a simple job by any means, 

 as it would not do to bang the poor creature against 

 the limbs or trunk of the tree in its descent, and the 

 light, swaying load had to be navigated between 

 branches, while the parent birds sometimes kept up 

 a perfect stream of terrified profanity overhead. 

 (There is no question but the crow swears. Any- 

 body who has observed him closely will testify to 

 this.) 



Once safely out of the tree, the baby crow was 

 taken home and put in a barrel or a deep box, with 

 plenty of smallish sticks at the bottom for it to 

 catch hold of with its feet, and later perches put 

 across higher up the sides. Bread soaked in milk 

 was usually found to be the best diet for a time — 

 and not as much of that as the little greedy-gut 

 demanded. There is nothing so greedy as a small 

 bird, and nothing so vociferous about it as a small 

 crow. If you give them all they demand, you can 

 kill them in twenty-four hours. Did you ever see 

 a young crow being fed by its parents? At that de- 



