This Menage A Trois May Have Subtle
Advantages And Seems To Be A Step In The Direction Of The Truly Social
Habits Of The Rook; It Enables Them To Fight With More Success Against
Their Enemies, The Hawks, And Fosters, Likewise, A Certain
Lightheartedness Which The Sententious Raven Lacks.
No one who has
watched the aerial antics of a triplet of carrion crows can deny them a
sense of fun.
After an hour's contemplation of the beauties of nature I descended once
more through that ilex grove to Serrone. And now it began to grow
decidedly warm. The wide depression between this village and Olevano
used to be timbered and is still known as la selva or la foresta. Vines
now occupy the whole ground. If they had only left a few trees by the
wayside! Walking along, I encountered a sportsman who said he was on the
look-out for a hare. Always that hare! They might as well lie in wait
for the Great Auk. Not long ago, an old visionary informed me that he
had killed a hare beside the Ponte Milvio at Rome. Hares at Ponte
Milvio! They reminded me of those partridges in Belgrave Square. In my
younger days there was not a general in the British army who had not (1)
shot partridges in Belgrave Square and (2) been the chosen lover of
Queen Isabella of Spain....
Up to the castle, in the afternoon, for a final chat. We sit under the
vine near the entrance of that decayed stronghold, while babies and hens
scramble about the exposed rock; he talks, as usual, about the war.
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