Feb, 21—A correspondent has written to me suggesting that the expression "as the crow ies" is quite misleading in its accepted mean-Ing. and quotes me as stating that crows spend a Tot of time in "weaving "exercises" on their Way back and forth between roosting and feed: Ing grounds: he further suggests that "as the Magpie flies" would be more correct since this bird makes a straight dash from point to point. All this is correct to some extent, but there fare many points to be thought of in a case of this sort, When I wrote of "weaving exercises" ele, Twas writing of Rooks which are @ kind of crow, but are possibly not the particular crow meant by the old saying. My guess is that the word "crow" was picked on merely because crows—big, black, noisy birds, easily seen and' quickly identified, are about the best known Birds in the world: the original expression might just as well have been "as the bird les." meaning @ crest-country line from point point free of all obstacles and diversions. But It would, indeed, be interesting to trace exactly which crow was in the mind of the man who made this phrase, or at least to know which crow had been visualized by ornithologists of the past when they used it, " Chaneing to read the diary of John James Audubon, greatest of all fcld ornithologists one hundred, years ago, I found him saying, "I finished my drawing of the Common Crow....": then, later, referring to a place as being "four miles distant og the crow flies" $0 I looked up his Crow picture in 1 reproduction of his famous "elephant folio" and found a very sleek looking bird—eertainly of our Rook—sitting in a tree and apparently trying to make up its mind whether to eat some walnuts or to rob a tiny Red-throated Humming-bird's nestt This shook me so badly that T shut the book and made a bee-line for bed....wondering drowsily as T fell asleep Whether the mon who created that phrase had ever watched a bee in a flower garden—eswv.
Fob. 23—Out in the Chipao country on Suh. day morning everything was doing its best to took like Spring in spite of an overcast sky and & chilly wind from the north-east: a few duck feeding in a long lagoon might well have been Widgeon when seen through the glasses, but attempts to get near them were rewarded only by a fallend view ex the birds swept off on vivid wings: higher up a great Grey Heron flopped lazily over' the sky, while a lock of birds looking black as crows in the distaifce soon identified themselves as. Plovers by their Founded wings end the regular rhythm of their fight, The plaintive tave-call of a Wood. pecker repeated from a bamboo grove might well have been the cry of a, Wryneck (which we sometimes all a Cuckoo's Mete) but the calendar reminded me that it is early yet to think of this Spring migrant, even if the coun. try is trying lo deceive me into the belief that already April: for the crops cre springing forward with lightning. rapidity, and the Horse Beans are staging their "one night only" performance of Jack-and.the-beanstalk, in the course of which they spring up as if by magic, Unfolding weary looking leaves to display bunches of buds which soon will be sweet. smelling blooms. In fact, there is no doubt that, jen said in a recently per pring has sprung." And into the midst of this beautiful scene walked a Mighty Hunter fully arrayed, with gun and dog ahd game-beg all complete: the dog, being tunable to read a calendar, looked quite unashamed: the hunter was getling some cosy shots at breeding Pheasants, for the birds are very tame in this (prohibited) area among the farmyards; his name.and nationality being unknown fo me f can sey nothing...but T hope his rabbit dies: and with this pious thought went home to breakfast—rs.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.