96 THE FISH-CROW. 



and White Ibis, waiting with remarkable patience, perched in the neighbour- 

 hood, until these birds left their charge. They also frequently alight on 

 large mud flats bordering the salt-water marshes, for the purpose of catching 

 the small crabs called fiddlers. This they do with ease, by running after 

 them or digging them out of the muddy burrows into which they retire at 

 the approach of danger. I have frequently been amused, while standing on 

 the "Levee" at New Orleans, to see the alacrity and audacity with which 

 they pursued and attacked the smaller Gulls and Terns, to force them to 

 disgorge the small fish caught by them within sight of the Crows, which, with 

 all the tyrannical fierceness of the Lestris, would chase the sea birds with 

 open bill, and extended feet and claws, dashing towards their victims with 

 redoubled ardour, the farther they attempted to retreat. But as most Gulls 

 are greatly superior in flight to the Crow, the black tyrants are often 

 frustrated in their attempts, and obliged to return, and seek their food in the 

 eddies by their own industry. They are able to catch fish alive with con- 

 siderable dexterity, but cannot feed on the wing, and for that purpose are 

 obliged to retire to some tree, stake, or sandbank; and like the Common 

 Crow, the Magpie, and the Cow Bunting, they sometimes alight on the backs 

 of cattle, to search there for the larvae which frequently harbour in their 

 skin. 



During winter and spring, the Fish-Crows are very fond of feeding on 

 many kinds of berries. After the frosts have imparted a rich flavour to those 

 of the cassina {Ilex cassina), they are seen feeding on them in flocks often 

 amounting to more than a hundred individuals. They are also fond of the 

 berries of the holly {Ilex opaca), and of those of an exotic tree now 

 naturalized in South Carolina, and plentiful about Charleston, the tallow-tree 

 {Stillingia sebife7 , a). The seeds of this tree, which is originally from China, 

 are of a white colour when ripe, and contain a considerable quantity of an 

 oily substance. In the months of January and February these trees are 

 covered by the Crows, which greedily devour the berries. As spring 

 advances, and the early fruits ripen, the Fish-Crows become fond of the 

 mulberry, and select the choicest of the ripe figs, more especially when they 

 are feeding their young. A dozen are often seen at a time, searching for the 

 tree which has the best figs, and so troublesome do they become in the 

 immediate vicinity of Charleston, that it is found necessary to station a man 

 near a fig-tree with a gun, not to burn powder to drive the Crows away by 

 the smell, but to fire in good earnest at them. They eat pears also, as well 

 as various kinds of huckleberries ( Vaccinium), and I have seen them feed- 

 ing on the berries of at least one species of smilax. 



In the Floridas, Georgia, and the Carolinas, this species usually breeds on 

 moderate-sized trees of the loblolly pine {Pinus Tceda), making its nest 



