CROWS AND THEIR COUSINS

In half an hour the children were back again, all talking eagerly together.

“The Redwings scolded us like everything!” said Dodo, “and Rap stepped right into an empty Meadow-lark’s nest, without seeing it.  A little way back there are lots of Bobolinks, too, singing and singing, but we couldn’t find a single nest.”

“It was pretty warm out there,” said Nat, fanning himself with a wide haymaker’s hat, such as both he and Dodo had worn since they came to the Farm.

“Come under the shelter and rest until Olaf has dinner ready.  Where is Olive?”

“She is down by the water looking for seaweeds, for her album.”

“Have we used up all the Blackbird family?” asked Dodo, as they sat on the sand and began to dig holes with their hands.

“Oh, no; there is the biggest of all—­the Crow,” said Nat.

“Strange as it is,” replied the Doctor, “though the Crow is the blackest of all our birds he does not belong to the Blackbird family, but to a separate one of his own—­the family of Crows, Jays, and Magpies.”

“How is that, Uncle Roy?  You said that beautiful blue and gray bird we saw in the woods was a Jay,” said Nat.

“Yes, but that is no stranger, as far as looks go, than to find a flaming Oriole in the Blackbird family, is it?  You remember that I told you the relationship of birds depends upon their likeness in the bones and the rest of their inwards, not upon the color of their feathers.”

“See! there are a great many Crows on that sandbar!  They are picking up mussels!  Some are bigger than others!” said Rap, who had been taking a look through the field-glass.  “Are the small ones the females, or are there two kinds of Crows?”

“There are several kinds of Crows in the United States, besides Ravens and Magpies, who are cousins to the Crow.  About here we usually only see two of them—­the two that are now down on the bar—­the American Crow and the Fish Crow.  The Fish Crow is the smaller of the two, lives along the coast, and does not often go further north than Connecticut.  It takes its name from its habit of catching fish in shallow pools and bays.

“The larger Crow is the bird that every one knows and most people dislike, because it has always been called a corn thief, though the Wise Men say it is rather a useful bird after all.

“The Crow is certainly a black, gloomy-looking bird, with a disagreeable voice.  If several pairs make up their minds to build in the cedars or tall pines in one’s grounds, anywhere near the house, the noise they make early in the morning is very tiresome.  ‘Ka—­Ka—­Ka-a-a-ah!’ they call and quaver, at the first peep of day.  Then they begin to look about for breakfast.  If there is a Robin’s or Dove’s nest at hand, they think it is foolish to look further, and help themselves to fresh eggs or squabs.  This makes us very angry, and we have the great Crow’s nest—­a peck or two of sticks, lined with the bark of cedars and grape vines—­pulled from the tree-top where the crafty bird had hidden it.