Tribunals of Birds.

Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3709, 13 November 1880, Page 1

Tribunals of Birds.

In the leading journal of Geneva a well* known Alpine tourist publishes an entertaining account of the proceedings of t raven tribunal, accidentally witnessed by him during a recent excursion in the Swiss mountains. . Descending from the region of glaciers, he came upon a small secluded glen, surrounded by thick cover, concealed in which he was enabled to contemplate a strange spectacle From sixty to seTenty ravens had formed a circle ronnd one of their fellows, obviously a misdemeant, whose alleged delinquencies they were eagerly engaged in discussing with infinite clatter of croaking and wing.flapping. Every now and then they interrupted their debates for a brief space to listen to the energetic representations of the prisoner, who conducted his own defence with amazing fervour, the judges breaking out into a deafening chorus of comments and refutations after his every statement. Presently, having arrived at the unanimous conclusion that the arraigned bird had failed to exculpate itself, they suddenly flew on him from all sides, and tore him to pieces with their powerful beaks. Having summarily 'executed their own sentence, they dispersed, leaving the remains of the dead offender bestrewing the very seat of | justice, as a dread warning to all immo* rally disposed ravens. A correspondent writing to the Daily Telegraph on the same subject says:—On a sultry sum* mer afternoon I was riding leisurely on horseback allong a quiet road in Norfolk —not many miles from Norwich—when I startled by hearing an unusual commotion within a short distance, amongst the dwellers of an adjacent rookery. Quietly tying up my horse to a gate, I crawled some hundred feet- or more to a gap in the hedge of a grass field, when a rook "trial by jury" was going on. The criminal—as undoubtedly he was—at first appeared very perky'and jaunty, although encircled by about forty or fifty of an evidently indignant sable fraternity, and assailed by the incessantly vehement cawing of an outer ring, consisting of many hundreds, each and all showing even greater indignation than was' manifested by the more select crowd. Some crime or other had evidently been committed against rook-law. Scouts, too, were hovering in all directions, and so absorbed were they that my vicinity was unheeded. After a very few minutes the manner of the criminal suddenly and wholly changed. He bent his head, cawed weakly, as it were imploring, and drooped bis wings, as if pleading for mercy. It was useless. The select circle went in at once, and, picking him to pieces,' left a mangled carcass in less time than I write of it. Then they and all the rest, scouts as well, set up a sort of exulting screaming, and flew away, some to their neighboring home, and others—the greater number I may say—across the fields. On picking up the remains I found a shapeless mass, but was able to discern it was a male bird.