34 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



about the garbage-pail, for instance, for crows are 

 natural scavengers, and they are extremely fond of 

 meat and fish. 



On the other hand, there were plentiful evidences 

 of his beneficent activities in the garden. Almost 

 invariably, when the master of the house picked up 

 a hoe or fork and set forth to cultivate, Jim would 

 come walking, with that quaint, rather uncertain, 

 sidelong gait of his tribe, interspersed with hops, and 

 follow up the rows of fresh-turned earth behind the 

 gardener, pouncing upon every white grub which 

 was brought into sight. They were very evidently 

 his favorite morsel, as he would frequently neglect 

 other worms when the fat white ones were plentiful. 

 His capacity for these grubs seemed unlimited, and 

 when you reflect that a single grub in a single night 

 can kill a cauliflower-plant which is worth fifteen 

 cents to the gardener, Jim is seen to have had a very- 

 positive commercial value. 



Another item of Jim's diet was mice. The first 

 evidence of his fondness for mice was disclosed when 

 somebody found a trap successfully sprung one 

 morning and tossed the little body out of the door 

 near the dog's nose to see what he would do with it. 

 He was an energetic and good-natured collie pup, 

 always ready to investigate anything and anybody, 

 and he at once picked up the mouse in his teeth. 

 The crow, however, happened to be close by (he 

 usually kept close to the dog, whenever possible, 

 in a curious spirit of teasing comradeship), and with 

 an angry and profane caw he rose from the ground, 

 swept down at the dog's head, and snatched the 

 mouse out of his mouth, flying off with it, and cast- 



