Page:Seton-Thompson--Wild animals I Have Known.djvu/86

 Mount! and straight upward they turned in a moment.

Bunch! and they all massed into a dense black flock.

Scatter! and they spread out like leaves before the wind.

Form line! and they strung out into the long line of ordinary flight.

Descend! and they all dropped nearly to the ground.

Forage! and they alighted and scattered about to feed, while two of the permanent sentries mounted duty—one on a tree to the right, the other on a mound to the far left. A minute or two later Silverspot would cry out, A man with a gun! The sentries repeated the cry and the company flew at once in open order as quickly as possible toward the trees. Once behind these, they formed line again in safety and returned to the home pines.

Sentry duty is not taken in turn by all the crows, but a certain number whose watchfulness has been often proved are the perpetual sentries, and are expected to watch and forage at the same time. Rather hard on them it seems to