I a A FORWARD MARCH. 



of laughter and vociferation. Their cawing now 

 is the very expressio.n of rejoicing and frolic, 

 very different in tone from their harsh, queru- 

 lous clamor while tormenting the hawks. It is 

 astonishing what variety of feeling and emotion 

 these birds can express in that single word. 

 After a half hour or so of merriment, they fly off, 

 one after another, in a sober way to the woods, 

 as though they had suddenly recalled to mind 

 some important business enterprise that ought to 

 be attended to, and soon all is silence over the 

 hilltop. 



I like these crows, they are such characteristic 

 birds and so intelligent withal. No doubt they 

 can distinguish a gun, at a long shot distance, 

 from a cane or spy-glass. Farmers say that they 

 can smell the powder in the barrel. Why should 

 not the wisest, oldest heads among them, the half- 

 century living ones, at least those that have been 

 so long associated with the prejudiced world and 

 its firearms, learn from experience to nicely dis- 

 criminate between the observer who walks abroad 

 without reserve, and him that stealthily creeps up 

 to wall and tree with a murderous fowling-piece in 

 his hand .■• 



Mr. Trowbridge, in his humorous poem "Watch- 

 ing the Crows," after telling the story of how the 

 farmers outwitted these "cute" birds by firing 

 from an ambush, makes the neighbor's boy say : 



