Country Life
BY IAN NIALL
WATCHING three crows stealing potatoes, I was amused again at their nerve. When a cat or a dog steals there is some sense of wrong- doing, but crows, dyed-in-the-feather robbers, go about it without the slightest sense of guilt and this sang-froid is the very recipe for suc- cess. One keeps watch while his accomplices Plunder, and the watch is a steady look-out with no panic at the first sign of danger. The danger seems to be nicely weighed up in fact, and the crows take the air only when the need IS imperative. The three birds settled on the top of a high wire fence bordering the potato Patch. Two flew down and picked up potatoes. One made off with his plunder, but the other flew to the top of a post and kept watch while the former sentry helped himself. The birds then went to three separate. trees and pecked away at the potatoes. Half an hour later they were back on the fence summing things up and following the same drill without variation.
Previous page
