I02 Ways of Wood Folk. 



be very patient, and put up with frequent disappoint- 

 ments if he would learn much of a crow's peculiarities 

 by personal observation. How shy he is ! How cun- 

 ning and quick to learn wisdom ! Yet he is very easily 

 fooled ; and some experiences that ought to teach him 

 wisdom he seems to forget within an hour. Almost 

 every time I went shooting, in the old barbarian days 

 before I learned better, I used to get one or two crows 

 from a flock that ranged over my hunting ground by 

 simply hiding among the pines and calling like a 

 young crow. If the flock was within hearing, it was 

 astonishing to hear the loud chorus of haw-haws, and 

 to see them come rushing over the same grove where 

 a week before they had been fooled in the same way. 

 Sometimes, indeed, they seemed to remember; and 

 when the pseudo young crow began his racket at the 

 bottom of some thick grove they would collect on a 

 distant pine tree and hazv-hazu in vigorous answer. 

 But curiosity always got the better of them, and they 

 generally compromised by sending over some swift, 

 long-winged old flier, only to see him go tumbling 

 down at the report of a gun ; and away they would 

 go, screaming at the top of their voices, and never 

 stopping till they were miles away. Next week they 

 would do exactly the same thing. 



Crows, more than any other birds, are fond of excite- 

 ment and great crowds ; the slightest unusual object 



