sailed gracefully from the room through the window,
quite calm and unruffled.

There is any number of these dark-plumed free-booters all about the
streets and dwellings, eagerly on the lookout for just such a chance
to impose upon thoughtless strangers. They fly in and out of open
doors, lighting confidently upon the back of one's chair at mealtime,
trying curiously the texture of his coat with their sharp bills. No
one molests them or makes them afraid. They are far tamer than our
domestic fowls, as they are never killed and eaten like hens and
chickens. A Singhalese's religion, as has been said, will not permit
him to take animal life. All animals are sacred to a Buddhist; even
snakes and vermin have nothing to fear from him. As to these Ceylon
crows, one regards them with a full sense of their audacity, but the
birds themselves do not seem to be at all annoyed by such scrutiny.
Cocking their heads on one side, parrot-like, they coolly proceed to
look you out of countenance. Their mischievous and vicious activity is
temporarily suspended during your presence, but no sooner is one's
back turned upon them than their reckless antics and thieving
propensities are resumed with increased vigor.

One of their favorite tricks is to purloin silver spoons, being
attracted perhaps by their brightness, and as they are not able to
consume them, though like the ostrich they can eat almost anything,
they seek some unfrequented piece of ground and dig a hole with their
sharp claws, wherein they bury the stolen property from sight. The
employees of the Grand Oriental Hotel are obliged to keep a sharp
lookout for their table-ware, as anything small and bright at once
challenges the curiosity of the crows, and is liable to be stolen by
them. They are most adroit thieves, and watch with cunning precaution
for a chance to perpetrate any sort of mischief.

There is another reason besides that of a religious prompting which
leads to the protection and toleration of the crows in this island.
They are the recognized scavengers of the city of Colombo, just as
vultures are permitted in Vera Cruz, where they are protected by law,
for a similar purpose. Not a scrap of carrion escapes the voracious
appetites of either species of these birds. All such matter cast into
the street instantly disappears, while, if left exposed to decay in
the hot sun, it might prove pestilential. It is remembered that the
question seriously suggested itself at Vera