THE CARRION CROW. 
93 
are left uncovered. Now, the carrion crow, sweeping 
up and down in quest of food^ takes advantage of 
this forced absence of the bird from her uncovered 
eggs, and pounces down upon them. He carries 
them off, not in his bill, but on the point of it, having 
thrust his upper mandible through the shell. Had 
there been no officious prying on the part of the 
keeper, it is very probable that the game would have 
hatched its brood in safety, even in the immediate 
vicinity of the carrion crow's nest ; for instinct never 
fails to teach the sitting bird what to do. Thus, in 
the wild state, when wearied nature calls for 
relaxation, the pheasant first covers her eggs, and 
then takes wing directly, without running from the 
nest. I once witnessed this, and concluded that it 
was a general thing. Prom my sitting-room, in the 
attic story of the house, I saw a pheasant fly from 
her nest in the grass ; and, on her return, she kept 
on wing till she dropped down upon it. By this in- 
stinctive precaution of rising immediately from the 
nest on the bird's departure, and its dropping on it 
at its return, there is neither scent produced, nor 
track made, in the immediate neighbourhood, by 
which an enemy might have a clue to find it out, 
and rob it of its treasure. These little wiles are the 
very safety of the nest ; and I suspect that they are 
put in practice by most birds which have their nest 
on the ground. To these wiles, in part (before gangs 
of forty or fifty nocturnal poachers desolated this 
district), I attributed the great increase of my 
pheasants, though they were surrounded by hawks, 
