47^ REPTILES AND BIRDS. 



consequently enormous. Ravens, not content with levying a tribute 

 on moles, field-mice, leverets, and young game, frequently enter 

 poultry-yards, and without ceremony appropriate chickens, ducklings, 

 &c. Buffon even asserts that in certain countries they fasten upon the 

 backs of buffaloes, and after having put out their eyes, devour them. 

 According to Lewis, Carrion Crows attack the flocks in Scotch and 

 Irish pastures. Lastly, all Crows delight in digging up newly-sown 

 ground, eating with avidity the germinating seed. On this account 

 the agricultural population are generally their bitterest enemies, 

 destroying them when opportunity offers. In certain parts — Nor- 

 way, for instance — laws were made ordering their extermination. But 

 this policy was short-sighted : if they did harm, they also did good, 

 by devouring grubs and larvae, formidable foes to agriculture. How 

 is it that men will not use their brains ? that they actually destroy 

 the animals provided by a bounteous Creator, and whose utility is 

 most conspicuous ? 



The flesh of the Raven and the Carrion Crow exhales a disagreeable 

 smell, doubtless caused by the quantities of putrid animal matter 

 they consume ■ consequently, it is unfit for human food. Not so, 

 however, with the Rook. This bird, when taken young, is not only 

 eatable, but by some deemed a delicacy. 



Crows possess a vigorous and sustained flight ; they have a keen 

 sense of smell and excellent vision. By exercising these latter 

 qualities they become aware where food is to be obtained, and as 

 they wing their way towards it they constantly utter their cry, as if 

 inviting their companions to join them ; this croak, as it is called, is 

 harsh and dissonant. Their plumage being of a sombre funereal 

 black, and their voice so unmusical, have doubtless been the reasons 

 why they have long been considered birds of ill omen. When taken 

 young, they are tamed with great facility, for they will neither rejoin 

 their own race nor desert the neighbourhood where they have been 

 kindly treated. True, they may go into the fields to seek for food, 

 but when the increasing shadows predict the approach of night, 

 their familiar resting-place in the house of their protector will be 

 sought. They become much attached to those who take notice of 

 them, and will recognise them even in a crowd. Their audacity and 

 their malice are incredible. When they take an antipathy to any 

 one, they immediately show it. They suffer neither cats nor dogs to 

 approach them, but harass them incessantly, tearing from them their 

 very food. Finally, they choose secret places, where they store up 

 all that tempts their cupidity or excites their covetousness. They 

 even learn to repeat words and phrases, and to imitate the cries of 



