Caw

“ There is something pleasing about the caw of the Rook, whether heard in the dreamy quietude of nature, or, as it often is, amid the bustle of the busy town; it is a sociable bird, friendly to man and his belongings. It is an English bird—a home bird, and reminds us of domestic scenes and pleasures. ”

“ “And I, you, and he; and we, ye, and they, are all bats; and I’m a crow, especially when I stand a’top of this pine tree here. Caw! caw! caw! caw! caw! caw! Ain’t I a crow? And where’s the scare-crow? There he stands; two bones stuck into a pair of old trowsers, and two more poked into the sleeves of an old jacket.” ”

“ A single bird cawing upon the roof or in the verandah before noon is telling good news or bad, according to the peculiar utterance of its note. After twelve o’clock if it comes 'to talk,' the servants say that it is only asking for food. The variety of expression in the caw of an Indian crow is remarkable. ”

“ A few keen-eyed Little Brothers of the Woods, working independently, have discovered with me that caw is only one syllable of a somewhat complicated speech. They often say ker-ker, ah-ah, cluck-cluck, haw-haw, and ha-ha, making in addition several other sounds which are difficult to describe adequately in print. ”

“ A multitudinous cawing attracts your attention when you look hillward and see a swarm of dusky forms circling in the air, their voices mingling in one dissonant wave of sound, while loose bands of other dusky forms come from all points of the compass to join them. Presently many hundred crows are assembled, alternately lighted upon the ground and silently walking about as if feeding, or circling in the air, cawing as if they would be heard in the next township. ”

“ The crows are flying heavily, and cawing overhead;
The sleepy milking cows are lowing sof'ly in the shed,
And above them, in the rafters, all the fowls have gone to bed,
When the sun's behind the hill. ”

“ The utmost severity of the winter will not drive them to seek a home in the country that lies beneath, upon which they, however, occasionally descend in large flocks, making the air resound with hoarse caws, or shrill cries, as they search for berries in the bushes that abound in Alpine valleys. ”

“ The Fox and the Crow
A CROW having stolen a bit of meat, perched in a tree and held it in her beak. A Fox, seeing this, longed to possess the meat himself, and by a wily stratagem succeeded. “How handsome is the Crow,” he exclaimed, “in the beauty of her shape and in the fairness of her complexion! Oh, if her voice were only equal to her beauty, she would deservedly be considered the Queen of Birds!” This he said deceitfully; but the Crow, anxious to refute the reflection cast upon her voice, set up a loud caw and dropped the flesh. ”

“ I have had a pair six years in my room without a cage, and they are satisfied with the food common for other birds: if kept in a cage, they must be fed on hemp seed, oats, millet, rape, and poppy seeds. They appear much delighted whilst bathing; during the night they seem very uneasy, hopping and running about continually. Their strong and piercing cry resembles a loud whistle; their song would be rather agreeable were it not interrupted in a peculiar manner; it is a warbling mingled with some high noisy notes, descending slowly from shrill to deep, and a little strong and broken whistling. ”

“ It's as tame as a clucking hen. Fancy a cove sitting down every morning and evening pulling at a cow's tits fit to bust himself, and then turning an old separator, and washing it up in a dish of water like a blooming girl's work. ”

“ But if left alone, it will probably be too much astonished at the novelty of its freedom to think of flying at first farther than the nearest thick shrub. So, having noticed where it has flown to, we must fetch the trap-cage without losing a moment, put in a hen from the aviary as call-bird, a few grains of hemp as bait, stand the cage on a box, or anything else, close to the bush, and watch from some point out of sight. ”

“ If these are the principal individual features, we may not overlook the animal life in a group of cows that are evidently reveling in high clover, and sniffing in the aroma of spring, not less gratefully than their keeper or the dairy maid. The shadows on the stream from the overhanging trees, and the shooting spires of grass that dot here and there the water, are wonderfully true to nature. ”

“ Knee-deep among the tepid pools the cows
Chew a slow cud or switch a slower tail,
Half-sunk in sleep beneath the beechen boughs,
Where thin the wood-gnats ail.
From bloom to bloom the languid butterflies drowse;
The sleepy bees make hardly any sound;{17}
The only things the sun-rays can arouse,
It seems, are two black beetles rolling round
Upon the dusty ground. ”

“ You know I've been watching the cattle for a long while, because I wanted a cow. I have been in a tree when they have passed under me several times, and I observed that one or two of the heifers were very near calving. Yesterday evening I thought one could not help calving very soon indeed, and as I was watching I saw that she was uneasy, and that she at last left the herd and went into a little copse of wood. ”

“ A gentleman who had assisted in the capture of the bear, told me the story I promised to tell you of the cow and the bear. A little girl, about twelve or thirteen years of age, was sent by her mother, one afternoon, to bring home the cows from a neighboring wood, where they were at pasture. There were many fallen trees, as is often the case in our wild woods ”

“ Never leave any green food longer than a day either in or over the cage. So shall your pet be healthy, and live for many years to give you comfort with his sweet fond voice. I may just mention that the linnet will learn the song of some other birds, notably that of the woodlark. Sea-sand may be put in the bottom of the cage, and when the bird begins to lose its feathers and moult, be extra kind and careful with it, covering the cage partly over, and taking care to keep away draughts. After the feathers begin to come you may put a rusty nail in the water. ”

“ After having taken the young from the nest they must be put in a cage, and placed at the foot of the tree in which this nest is built, in a place dug for the purpose, and on the cage a tit as a decoy. When left there, the old birds come to feed their young, and are caught in the snare. As soon as they are taken, they must all be brought into the house, where the old and young must be put together in any aviary, or large cage, till the latter can fly ”

“ The robin loves the sunshine and a clean, dry cage, and, as to food, he is not very particular. Give him German paste—with a little bruised hemp and maw seed, with insects, beetles, grubs, garden and meal worms, etc. Let him have clean gravel frequently, and fresh water every morning. Now and then, when you think your pet is not particularly lively, put a rusty nail in the water. ”

“ If you cannot get sawdust anywhere else, an oilman will let you have enough to last you a month for twopence. In such a cage as I have described a ‘boar’ and six ‘sows’ may be kept. When a sow is about to have young it should be put in a small cage by itself, and as soon as the young are old enough to eat and run about they may be turned with their mother into this big cage. ”

“ When the bear has partaken of his last meal amid the general emotion of the spectators, the old women weeping afresh and the men uttering stifled cries, he is strapped, not without difficulty and danger, and being let out of the cage is led on leash or dragged, according to the state of his temper, thrice round his cage, then round his master's house, and lastly round the house of the orator. ”

“ Little G stepped forward daintily, his nostrils expanding, his ears working back and forth, trying to the best of his ability to understand which animals I had selected. The cow and her calf turned in toward the centre of the herd. A touch of the reins guided the pony. ”

“ When a pair of them are kept together in a large cage or aviary, it is very amusing to see them at play with each other, flying up and down, and spreading open their long wings in a curious manner, dancing and singing at the same time. I have very little doubt but a young bird, brought up from the nest, might be taught to talk, as they are very imitative. ”

“ WHY THE COW TURNED HER HEAD AWAY.
"Moolly Cow, your barn is warm, the wintry winds cannot reach you, nor frost nor snow. Why are your eyes so sad? Take this wisp of hay. See, I am holding it up? It is very good. Now you turn your head away. Why do you look so sorrowful, Moolly Cow, and turn your head away?" [23]
"Little girl, I am thinking of the time when that dry wisp of hay was living grass. When those brown, withered flowers were blooming clovertops, buttercups, and daisies, and the bees and the butterflies came about them. ”

“ But there was one of the cows which had a calf, and because she could neither make the calf go fast enough to escape the lioness, nor could bring herself to forsake it, she remained behind and fell a prey to the wild beast. ”

“ Then the young cow, embarrassed by so much attention, crossed the shallow river and went up among some hills where she had once ranged and where the vining mesquite grass grew luxuriantly. There they spent several months, and the calf grew like a weed, and life was one long summer day. He could have lived there always and been content, for he had many pleasures. Other cows, also, brought their calves up to the same place, and he had numerous playmates in his gambols on the hillsides. Among the other calves was a speckled heifer, whose dam was a great crony of his own mother. ”

“ Next day, holding her wild head high that her wild horns should not catch in the wild trees, Wild Cow came up to the Cave, and the Cat followed, and hid himself just the same as before; and everything happened just the same as before; and the Cat said the same things as before, and when Wild Cow had promised to give her milk to the Woman every day in exchange for the wonderful grass, the Cat went back through the Wet Wild Woods waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone, [210] just the same as before. ”

“ One that a lady friend of ours kept for some months in a cage, drank, more or less, she assures us, during every half-hour of the day, and if its supply at any time happened to fail by any neglect or oversight of its mistress, the thirsty little toper squeaked querulously and nibbled angrily at the bars and wood-work of its cage until its water-dish was replenished. ”

“ This particular cow of my neighbor’s that I hear lowing, is an entirely gentle creature ordinarily, but with a calf at her side she will pitch at any one who approaches her. And there is no other cow in the herd that mourns so long after her calf. The mother in her is stronger, more enduring, than in any of the other nineteen cows in the barn. My own cow hardly mourns at all when her calf is taken away. She might be an oak tree losing its acorns, or a crab losing her hatching eggs, so far as any show of love is concerned. ”

“ The little rough pony that had drawn in a sledge, from the heart of the Black-moss, the fuel by whose blaze the cotters were now sitting cheerily, and the little Highland cow, whose milk enabled them to live, were standing amicably together, under cover of a rude shed, of which one side was formed by the peat-stack, and which was at once byre and stable and hen-roost. ”

“ But, alas! for human calculations. One afternoon I went, as usual, to take in the cage for the night: there was Dick, the robin; and Philip, the sparrow; and slender Rupert, my own canary, and his mate; but Willie of Fayal, the green and golden stranger, was gone, cage and all. I looked out of the window; there lay the cage upon the ground, empty. Imagine my consternation! Had some strange, prowling cat devoured—? ”

“ In placing them in the large cage which I had ordered for the purpose of sending them abroad, I was surprised to see how cowardly each newly caught bird was when introduced to his brethren, who, on being in the cage a day or two, were as gay and frolicksome as if at liberty in the woods. ”

“ After an hour’s watching, the cow came cautiously down the brook. She stopped short at sight of the floating log; watched it steadily for two or three minutes, wigwagging her ears; then began to feed greedily on the lily pads that fringed all the shore. When she went back I followed, guided now by the crack of a twig, now by a swaying of brush tops, now by the flip of a nervous ear or the push of a huge dark body, keeping carefully to leeward all the time and making the big, unconscious creature guide me to where she had hidden her little one. ”

“ Any other of the Finch tribe may be fed on seeds generally, as the preceding. Perfect cleanliness of the cage, and a constant supply of fresh water and gravel are essential.
Baltimore Oriole.–A bird of delightful plumage and rich brilliant music, well repaying the utmost care. They eat fruit of all kinds, seeds, insects, &c. Give them a large cage, protection from frost, and an abundance of insects. ”

“ Certainly they like the sun; and we have often seen a pair at the Zoological Gardens sunning themselves after their breakfast with great delight. They sit on a bar, close to the wires of the cage, and climb four or five feet up it, clinging close to their iron prison, just in the range of a sunbeam. They spread out their black hands, and enjoy the glare, becoming sleepy and disinclined to pay any attention to nuts, cakes, and other temptations. ”

“ Amid the shattered flesh, with its changing colors and a smell so strong that it puts a loathsome taste in my mouth, at the bottom of the cage where some crossed bones are black and rusted as iron bars, I can see something, something isolated, dark and round. ”