324 
ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE. 
or croaking ensues, and the whole of the court, judges, barristers, 
ushers, audience, and all, fall upon the two or three prisoners 
at the bar, and beat them till they kill them. When this is 
accomplished the court breaks up and quietly disperses. 
In the northern parts of Scotland (says Dr. Edmonson), 
and in the Faroe Islands, extraordinary meetings of crows are 
occasionally known to occur. They collect in great numbers, 
as if they had all been summoned for the occasion; a few of the 
flock sit with drooping heads, and others seem as grave as 
judges, while others again are exceedingly active and noisy ; in 
the course of about one hour they disperse, and it is not un- 
common, after they have flown away, to find one or two left 
dead on the spot. These meetings will sometimes continue for 
a day or two before the object, whatever it may be, is completed. 
Crows continue to arrive from all quarters during the session. 
As soon as they have all arrived, a very general noise ensues ; 
and, shortly after, the whole fall upon one or two individuals, 
and put them to death. When the execution has been per- 
formed, they quietly disperse. 
Similarly, the Bishop of Carlisle writes in the 4 Nine- 
teenth Century’ for July 1881 : — 
I have seen also a jackdaw in the midst of a congregation of 
rooks, appa ently being tried for some misdemeanour. First 
Jack m de a speech, which was answered by a general cawing 
of the rooks ; this subsiding, Jack again took up his parable, 
and the rooks in their turn replied in chorus. After a time 
the business, whatever it was, appeared to be settled satisfac- 
torily : if Jack was on his trial, as he seemed to be, he was 
honourably acquitted by acclamation ; for he went to his home 
in the towers of Ely Cathedral, and the rooks also went their way. 
Lastly, Major-General Sir George Le Grand Jacob, 
K.C.S.I., C.B., writes to me that while sitting in a ve- 
randah in India, he saw three or four crows come and perch 
on a neighbouring house. They then cawed continuously 
wfith such peculiar sound and vigour as to attract his at* 
tention. His account proceeds : — 
Soon a gathering of crows from all quarters took place, until 
the roof of the guard -house was blackened by them. Thereupon 
a prodigious clatter ensued ; it was plain that a 4 palaver ’ was 
going forward. Some of its members, more eager than others, 
skipping about, I became much interested, and narrowly watched 
the proceedings, all within a dozen yards of me. After much 
cawing and clamour, the whole group suddenly rose into the air, 
