The Crows’ Court of Law.
There is a kind of crow which is seen in the south of England in flocks about the middle of autumn; it is called the hooded crow. These crows go away towards the north in spring; they are very tame, and will go into the yards of houses to pick up food.
They are not very like the common crows, for their backs are ash-colored, and their heads, throat, wings and tail, are black, and they have two cries; one of them being like the voice of the common crow, and the other something like the crowing of a cock.
It is said that in some places where these birds are found, one or two hundred of them will now and then meet together, as if upon some fixed plan, and at these times a few of them sit with drooping heads, and others look very grave, as if they were judges, and others are very bustling and noisy.
In about an hour the meeting breaks up, when one or two are generally found dead, and it has been supposed that this meeting is a sort of trial of some crows who have behaved ill, and who are punished in this severe way for their bad behavior.