Notes on the Crow, By W. H.[1]
The crow belongs to the genus Corvus, of which the raven in Scotland may be considered the type; but the varied localities they frequent has gradually imposed on each a set of manners and a method of living in some particulars as opposite as if the two birds belonged to distinct classes. The crow never soars into those regions occupied by the raven; and the raven never descends, unless compelled by the direst hunger, to those champaign levels occupied by man, where the crow is so continually to be seen: hence different views and different scenes impose on each opposite volitions and movements, and each has a mode of life peculiar to itself: even the schemes for their peculiar safety are widely different. Still, in specific characters, they very closely agree: they are of the same colour; they utter a very similar cry; and flesh, just entering a state of decomposition, is the favorite food of both: both, when driven by hunger, are equally cruel to weaker birds: they build at the same time; have the same period of incubation; and hatch in the same month—April. In the quality of their food, and in the way of obtaining it, they somewhat differ; for the raven generally selects the noblest birds as his prey, while the crow has recourse to the meanest and most ignoble shifts to obtain food, which is frequently the filthiest garbage deposited on the dunghill.
In the lambing season the crow is the dread of the shepherd, and commits unheard-of cruelties: at this season its nest is overflowing with young, which require an enormous quantity of food; and many an inoffensive creature is slain to gorge their craving appetites. The symptoms of parturition are as well known to the crows as to the shepherd, and a group may often be seen waiting with anxious expectation; and when the poor ewe is in a state utterly unable to defend herself, the hungry harpies fall on her without mercy, pluck out her eyes, and, when she cries with the pain, drive their strong beaks into her tongue and tear it out, piece by piece; at every fragment they swallow they give a satisfied gobble, and they never desist from their cruel task till life is extinct. If the mother escapes, the young lamb frequently becomes a victim before it has yet stood erect; its eyes and tongue are first selected, or its bowels drawn out.
I have witnessed many other acts of the crows' rapacity, which it is needless to relate; indeed they are little noticed, being exercised on creatures the loss of which does not diminish the happiness or comfort of man. When hungry I have known them take small fish from a considerable depth in the water, although they have no mechanism
- ↑ William Hogg (see "Contents" (Wikisource-ed.)
