and came down again without reaching the nest. Crows with sticks and
feathers in their mouths are flying about all day.

"Dec. 5, 1878. Aroli.--Found a nest with a Crow sitting in it; no one
to climb the tree."

Mr. Benjamin Aitken has favoured me with the following interesting
note:--"I send you an account of a nest of the Common Crow, found in
October, 1874, in the town of Madras. My attention was first directed
to the remarkable pair of Crows to which the nest belonged, in the end
of July, when they were determinedly and industriously attempting to
fix a nest on the top ledge of a pillar in the verandah of the 'Madras
Mail' office. The ledge was so narrow that one would have thought the
Sparrow alone of all known birds would have selected it for a site;
and even the Sparrow only under the condition of a writing or
toilet-table being underneath to catch the lime, sticks, straws, rags,
feathers, and other innumerable materials that commonly strew the
ground below a Sparrow's nest. I was told that the Crows had been at
their task for two months before I saw them, and I then watched them
till nearly the end of October. The celebrated spider that taught King
Bruce a lesson in patience was eager and fitful compared with this
pair of Crows. I kept no account of the number of times their
structure was blown down, only to be immediately begun again; but as
there was a good deal of rain and wind at that season, in addition to
the regular sea-breeze, it was a common thing for the sticks to be
cleared off day after day. But perseverance will often achieve seeming
impossibilities, and, moreover, the Crows worked more indefatigably as
the season went on, and used to run up their nest with great rapidity
(no doubt, also, they improved by their practice); so that several
times the structure was completed, or nearly completed, before being