THE HOODED CROW 
full gorge. No other bird came near the place, 
for the bitter weather had driven most of the 
crow-kind to seek garbage on the sea-flats forty 
miles away, and in the evening when they 
returned to Kilcool they had the fir-tree almost 
to themselves. 
But though the long wait and subsequent feast 
on the mountain had saved the lives of the 
crows for the time being, it struck a blow 
at Fionog-liat's supremacy as leader. The 
younger birds had torn food unrebuked from 
under his bill, and they were not likely to 
forget it on the next occasion. That evening 
when Fionog-liat dropped on to his usual 
roosting perch the snuggest of all, be it said 
his claws gripped feathers instead of bark, and 
he found himself jammed shoulder to shoulder 
with his two mutinous followers. He jostled 
them straightway off the branch, and, com- 
plaining savagely, they sought a perch lower 
down ; but Fionog-liat knew that such a thing 
would never have happened a week before. 
The crows passed the next day in leisurely 
idleness. After such a meal as theirs had been 
they did not feel the pinch of famine for many 
hours, but on the second day they were hungry 
again, and Fionog-liat turned to the mountain. 
The two rebel birds followed him as far as the 
bogs, but then they bore away westwards on 
I2 5 
