S2 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



that particular vermin. That these crows had made 

 the same discovery seemed a logical — the only logi- 

 cal — explanation , 



But the most interesting thing about these three 

 birds developed after two of them, through some 

 disease, lost enough of their flight feathers to dis- 

 able them for any sustained flight. The two 

 crippled birds and the one sound bird all roosted 

 at night on the upper rungs of a ladder, under the 

 eaves of the ell. One day, however, a marsh-hawk 

 came over the garden, discovered the crippled con- 

 dition of the two weak crows, and made for them. 

 The well crow instantly attacked him, and held 

 him off till the others were under cover before 

 taking to shelter himself. The hawk came back 

 presently, however, and the same operation was 

 repeated. 



That night the sound crow roosted not on the 

 ladder, but on the ridge-pole, where he could com- 

 mand a view in all directions! All the rest of the 

 summer, too, he roosted there, and by day or night 

 he was alert for signs of the approaching hawk and 

 at a certain warning signal his two companions 

 would scurry as fast as they could to shelter, while 

 he circled overhead and, if necessary, gave actual 

 battle to the invader. There could not have been 

 a more perfect illustration of the strong protecting 

 the weak, of a sense of communal responsibility. 

 These two weak crows, mind you, were not his off- 

 spring, but his brothers, yet he at once accepted the 

 task of looking after them and bravely fulfilled it. 



After such an exhibition, and after the repeated 

 warnings of the United States Bureaus, that a whole- 



