WAYS OF NATURE 
to teach the youngsters how to fly. This they did 
by circling about the pasture, giving a peculiar call 
while they were followed by their flock — all but 
one. This was a bobtailed crow, and he did not 
obey the word of command. His mother took note 
of his disobedience and proceeded to discipline him. 
He stood upon a big stone, and she came down upon 
him and knocked him off his perch. “He squawked 
and fluttered his wings to keep from falling, but the 
blow came so suddenly that he had not time to save 
himself, and he fell flat on the ground. In a minute 
he clambered back upon his stone, and I watched 
him closely. The next time the call came to fly he 
did not linger, but went with the rest, and so long 
as I could watch him he never disobeyed again.” 
I should interpret this fact of the old and young 
crows flying about a field in summer quite differ- 
ently.. The young are fully fledged, and are already 
strong flyers, when this occurs. They do not leave 
the nest until they can fly well and need no tutor- 
ing. What the writer really saw was what any one 
may see on the farm in June and July: she saw 
the parent crows foraging with their young in a field. 
The old birds flew about, followed by their brood, 
clamorous for the food which their parents found. 
The bobtailed bird, which had probably met with 
some accident, did not follow, and the mother re- 
turned to feed it; the young crow lifted its wings 
and flapped them, and in its eagerness probably 
234 
