The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1888-09-05
Tribunals Of Birds.


igence and power of thought, design
and aim in their doings, strangely
akin to what we see in human beings.
Natural history is full of examples
confirming and illustrating this state
ment, and observation is continually
adding to their number, one Of the
most singular and curious of which is
seen in what has been called, as in our
title, "The Tribunal of Birds"
AS one instance of this, the writer
will state what he himself has wit
messed, and in three different cases
where he has mentioned it to others
they have told him that they had
themselves seen substantially the
same thing. He was going with a
friend through woody and sandy
part of lower New Jersey, when his
attention was arrested by a large gath
ering of crows on the border of the
woods, who were flying about with
not little noise and excitement, so
much so that, as he drew cautiously
near, he did not seem to be noticed.
Quietly seating himself with his
friend on log he concluded to watch
their doings, when he saw the strange
and curious proceeding, brief &C
count of which follows.
In number the crows might have
been some fifty or sixty. Most of
them were flying backward and for
ward, filling the air with their cawing.
One was sitting on branch, some
twenty feet above the ground, as if
supervising the whole scene, and at
intervals uttering sharp and author
itative "caw" to the others. On the
ground below, entirely by themselves,
were two crows, silent and apparently
depressed, who were evidently the OBJ
jects of the gathering. Whether they
were sick, or old and feeble and dis
abled, or had committed some crime
against the crow-law, their language
did not inform us, but they looked
and acted like culprits, and so seemed
to be regarded by the others. My
friend thought he once or twice heard
some sound from them, which he
fancied might be tone of remon-
STRANGE or complaint, or perhaps of ap-
peal for pity; but the writer did not
notice it. For some minutes the great
body of crows were flying about ener-
getically and cawing, but soon the
noise diminished, and most of them
had settled upon the trees, when sud-
denly, as if at some signal, or by some
simultaneous impulse, they all darted
upon the two culprits or offenders on
the ground, and literally tore them to
pieces, scattering their feathers or ev-
cry side, after which the entire flock
dispersed and flew away.
Since witnessing the sight thus
mentioned, the writer has been told by
an old and leading physician of New
Jersey, that he has twice in his life
time witnessed similar transaction
among the crows; and young friend
says he has once, when out hunting,
seen substantially the same thing, ex-
cept that, in the last case, the victim
was but a single crow. In each in
stance, the offender, whatever his Of
fence might have been, was torn in
pieces by his associates. And so we
see, in leading journal of Geneva,
in Switzerland, that a well-know AL
pine tourist publishes an account of
the proceedings of raven tribunal"
which he accidentally witnessed,
while in an excursion in the Swiss
mountains.
Decending from the region of the
glaciers, he came upon glen sur
ounded by thick woods, concealed in
which he witnessed, as he says, a
strange spectacle. Some sixty OF
seventy ravens formed circle round
one of their number, whose conduct
they were eagerly discussing, with
great clatter of croaking and clapping
of wings. Every now and then they
interrupted their noise to listen, for a
moment, to the energetic cawing of
the culprit, who seemed to be defend
ing himself with earnestness and
vigor, the apparent judges breaking
out as soon as he clased into deafen-
ing chorus of comments and replies to
his statements. And soon, having ar
rived at their conclusion, they flew
upon the arraigned bird from all sides,
and tore him to pieces with their
powerful beaks, and then dispersed,
leaving the remains of the executed
offender strewed upon the ground.
And this narrative from the Geneva
papers leads a correspondent of the
"Daily Telegraph" to say on the same
subject that when he was riding on
horseback near Norfolk, in England,
he was startled by hearing an unsual
.commotion among the rocks of the
neighborhood. Quietly tying his
horse, he crawled to a gap in the hedge
of a grass-feld in which crook trial