FEBRUARY. 45 



I can aver. For years I have noticed that, without the 

 least apparent reason, I have suddenly thought of some 

 one animal and straightway it appears upon the scene. 

 It was so this afternoon. I had neither seen nor heard a 

 crow, either before I reached the island or while upon it, 

 and yet that these birds were to be a prominent feature 

 of my homeward walk I was positive ; and so it proved. 

 What does it all mean ? Did they really exert, unknow- 

 ingly, some strange influence upon me, as man appears to 

 do upon man when through the senses of sight or hear- 

 ing they have no knowledge of each other's whereabout ? 

 I have long thought that such common experience could 

 not be mere coincidence, and so the whole matter becomes 

 vexatious, for I hate mystery. 



I had not gone far before I fell in with a company of 

 silent crows. Twenty or more sat, without uttering the 

 faintest sound, on the lower branches of a huge black 

 birch. I caught sight of them before I had been seen, 

 and so were joined two rare occurrences in the bird world — 

 surprising a gathering of mute crows. I should have 

 waited where I stood, and so had a chance to determine 

 the cause of their silent meeting ; but my spirit of mischief 

 overcame discretion and I shouted loudly. With a united 

 cry of alarm that was almost deafening, they took wing 

 and scattered in every direction, but soon gathered again 

 and flew in one direction, down the river ; and now their 

 mingled voices, pitched on a dozen different keys, sounded 

 marvelously like an earnest conversation; and I firmly 

 believe that it was. 



A silent and solitary crow may not be phenomenal, 

 but when a dozen or more are associated and all refrain 

 from utterance, then rest assured that something of grave 

 import occupies their minds. I do not know how far down 

 in the scale the remark is applicable, but if we have any 

 warrant for judging animals by their actions and voices, 



