254 
BIBDS. 
[Chap. VIII. 
growth of cinnamon by feeding on the fruit, and thus 
disseminating the undigested seed. 1 
So accustomed are the natives to their presence and ex- 
ploits, that, like the Greeks and Romans, they have made 
the movements of crows the basis of their auguries; 
and there is no end to the vicissitudes of good and evil 
fortune which may not be predicted from the direction 
of their flight, the hoarse or mellow notes of their croak- 
ing, the variety of trees on which they rest, and the 
numbers in which they are seen to assemble. 
All day long these birds are engaged in watching either 
the offal of the offices, or the preparation for meals in 
the dining-room : and as doors and windows are neces- 
sarily opened to relieve the heat, nothing is more com- 
mon than the passage of a crow across the room, lifting on 
the wing some ill-guarded morsel from the dinner-table. 
No article, however unpromising its quality, provided 
only it be portable, can with safety be left unguarded in 
any apartment accessible to them. The contents of 
ladies' work-boxes, kid gloves, and pocket handkerchiefs 
vanish instantly if exposed near a window or open door. 
They open paper parcels to ascertain the contents ; they 
will undo the knot on a napkin if it encloses anything 
eatable, and I have known a crow to extract the peg 
which fastened the lid of a basket in order to plunder 
the provender within. 
On one occasion a nurse seated in a garden adjoining 
a regimental mess-room, was terrified by seeing a bloody 
clasp-knife drop from the air at her feet ; but the mys- 
tery was explained on learning that a crow, which had 
been watching the cook chopping mince-meat, had seized 
1 Wolf's Life and Adventures, p. 117. 
