Page:Mongolia, the Tangut country, and the solitudes of northern Tibet vol 1 (1876).djvu/88

22 birds pursuing the baggage camels which followed our cart, and after perching on the packs fly away with something in their beaks. On a closer investigation, I discovered that they had torn a hole in one of the provision bags, and were purloining our rusks. They would hide their plunder somewhere on one side of the road, and then return again for more. After this discovery, all such thieves were summarily shot; but others soon appeared in their stead, to share a like fate.

This went on every day till we reached Kalgan. The rapacity of the crows in Mongolia surpasses belief. These birds, so shy with us, are there so impudent as to steal provisions almost out of the tents of the Mongols. Nay, they will actually perch on the backs of the grazing camels, and tear their humps with their beaks. The foolish, timid animal only cries at the top of its voice, and spits at its tormentor, who returns again and again to the back of the camel until it has inflicted a large wound by means of its powerful beak. The Mongols consider it wrong to kill birds, and so they cannot rid themselves of the crows, which accompany every caravan across the desert. It is impossible to leave any food outside the tent without its being instantly stolen by these audacious birds, who, if they can find nothing better, will tear the undressed hides off the boxes of tea. These crows and the kites in summer were our inveterate foes throughout the expedition. Many a time they robbed us of small skins which we had prepared for our collection, to say nothing