from the convexity of its bill; but though seen in the towns, it lives
chiefly in the open country, and may be constantly observed wherever
there are buffaloes, perched on their backs and engaged, in company with
the small Minah (_Acridotheres tristis_) in freeing them from ticks.]

[Footnote 2: WOLF'S _Life and Adventures_, p. 117.]

So accustomed are the natives to its presence and exploits, that, like
the Greeks and Romans, they have made the movements of the crow the
basis of their auguries; and there is no end to the vicissitudes of good
and evil fortune which may not be predicted from the direction of their
flight, the hoarse or mellow notes of their croaking, the variety of
trees on which they rest, and the numbers in which they are seen to
assemble. All day long they are engaged in watching either the offal of
the offices, or the preparation for meals in the dining-room; and as
doors and windows are necessarily opened to relieve the heat, nothing is
more common than the passage of crows across the room, lifting on the
wing some ill-guarded morsel from the dinner-table.

No article, however unpromising its quality, provided only it be
portable, can with safety be left unguarded in any apartment accessible
to them. The contents of ladies' work-boxes, kid gloves, and pocket
handkerchiefs vanish instantly if exposed near a window or open door.
They open paper parcels to ascertain the contents; they will undo the
knot on a napkin if it encloses anything eatable, and I have known a
crow to extract the peg which fastened the lid of a basket in order to
plunder the provender within.

On one occasion a nurse seated in a garden adjoining a regimental
mess-room, was terrified by seeing a bloody clasp-knife drop from the