184 
BIRD-LIFE. 
hides up in his store-house under a barrel. This game is 
carried on until sufficient provision has been accumu¬ 
lated.” The Goose, so often spoken of as stupid, 
sometimes gives proof of a character quite the reverse. A 
Gander had taken up his abode in a wheat-field; at first 
the bird fed with the greatest nonchalance, until disco¬ 
vered and repeatedly driven out; after which he only 
sought the field and fed when no one was near. Did 
any person approach he immediately squatted close to the 
ground without uttering a sound, and even allowed the 
whole flock of village Geese to pass by without betraying 
himself. 
My father has immortalized the intelligence of a 
Carrion Crow in the following anecdote. “As genius 
distinguishes individuals among men, so cleverness 
raises some birds far above their fellows. I once met 
with a genius such as this in the person of a female 
Carrion Crow, which had built her nest in a small 
wood of tall firs and beech trees, standing about 200 
yards distant from the manor of Oberrenthendorf, and 
some 800 from my dwelling. When this bird was hungry 
she showed a boldness and cleverness which astonished 
everybody, and caused universal consternation. If a 
flock of Geese and Goslings were not very carefully 
watched, down pounced the Crow, seized hold of any 
little Gosling which might have strayed some distance 
from the old birds, and, killing it with a few blows of the 
beak, picked it up, by the neck, in her bill, and away with 
it to her young at home; young Ducks and Chickens 
shared the same fate. 
“ One day a servant girl, who was walking in a garden, 
happened to lay down part of her breakfast—a nice well- 
buttered piece of bread (she had just finished a piece of 
