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A Fatal Meal.

The Untimely Ending of a Crow Who Swallowed a Centiped.

     “Saw a curious thing in California last winter,” said the man who travels about. “I had stopped for a moment to chat with a man who was plowing when he called my attention to a large centiped that he had just plowed up.

     “Come along with me a few feet,” said he, “and let’s see what those crows will do when they find it.

     “There were several large carrion crows that had been followed the farmer and picking up the insects.

     We went on a few feet, and the crows followed. One big, black fellow soon saw the centiped and swallowed him at one gulp. Then, in the expressive slang of the day, there was something doing in the neighborhood of that crow. With a caw of despair he mounted into the air for perhaps a hundred feet, then fell heels over head till he was a few feet from the ground. Then he managed to catch himself and flew upward again and away for the hills, cawing wildly. He had not gone more than 800 feet when he lost all control of himself and fell like a shot to the ground. We went over to where he had fallen and found him on his back with his feet in the air, stone dead.

     “In a way I know how that crow felt when he awoke to the situation. I hadn’t forgotten my first spoonful of tabasco sauce that a joking friend once talked me into swallowing.”-Detroit Free Press.

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