Being neighbors with crows

Although magpies and crows belong to the same family of birds in the order Crow and are taxonomically related, their reputations are vastly different. People regard magpies as auspicious birds, and there are nursery rhymes about magpies calling and coming, and they are also compared to the arrival of happy events. When it comes to crows, we can't help but frown. When I was a child, my grandmother often warned me that if you go out and meet a crow, you should spit on your heels, otherwise, if the crow crows at you, you will encounter bad luck, and if it crows at you three times, the family will die. I was horrified to hear this, and my young mind developed a deep-rooted belief that crows were unlucky birds, the master of bad omens.

Fortunately, I lived in Shanghai until I was 16 years old and never saw a crow. I never imagined that when I went to settle in Manguang Lang village in Xishuangbanna, I would become neighbors with crows.

About 20 meters away from the pond on the left side of my thatched roof, there was a linden tree with a lot of leaves. Every year, from June to February, a large group of crows would occupy the old linden tree, and the huge canopy of the tree became the home base of the crows, too many to count. When they perch collectively among the branches, they look like they are hanging from a dozen black fruits, bending the branches.

Crows are annoying birds, the idiom of "the crows are black" is true, all crows are black except for the tawny eyes. For example, the magpie is black from head to tail, including the two wings, but it is so black that it shines against the white hairs on its belly, making it a delight to look at; whereas the large-billed crows in front of my house are like black clay pots that have been forgotten to be glazed. Especially at dusk, when the crows return to their nests, a tree of crows croaking, hoarse and vulgar, the tone of the voice is bleak and sad, with the pale sky, homesickness, and sadness, so that people listen to the mood irritable, really think the end of the world is coming. No wonder the crows have a gag name of a black crow.

At first, I kept my grandmother's advice to turn around and spit at my heels when I saw crows, but within a few days, I gave up on this secret to dispel evil. There were so many crows, so close to me, and I had to see the black silhouette of a crow every moment and hear its shrill cry, so I had to keep spitting all day long.

There are many unlucky things about being next to crows. Crows will steal things, and specialize in stealing round shiny in the sun will shine things, what glass beads, ping-pong balls, girls' necklaces, earrings, rings, etc., even my mosquito net hooks on the plastic pendants, they have been gripped as if they were born to have a collection of such items. Once, I was nailing a shirt button in the yard and forgot to take my scissors, so I went into my room to get them. When I returned to the yard, I happened to see a crow fly down to the stone table and pick up a bunch of colorful buttons from my sewing box. I could see very clearly because of the proximity, this crow was larger than the average crow, about 50 cm long from beak to tail tip, while the average crow was about 40 cm long. I have been calling it "Tall Hat" ever since. I was not willing to let the thief off lightly, so I was quick to swish the scissors in my hand and threw them at him, and they hit him in the shoulder blade, and he cried out, and the string of buttons in his mouth fell off, and one wing half converged, and one wing swayed, like a small sampan in a whirlpool, spinning in mid-air and dropping several black feathers. The black feathers fell. I ran over and bent down to pick up the scissors and tried to make another effort to knock the damned crow down, but when I straightened up, the "high hat" had already recovered from the first blow and flapped its wings sharply, flying up crookedly, finally flying to the top of the linden tree and disappearing into the foliage.

I'll see if you dare to mess with me again!

I was pleased with myself for only two days, and then I couldn't be pleased anymore.

On the evening of the third day, I walked through the linden tree to the pond to take a bath, and I heard a croaking sound in the air. Suddenly, its long tail curled upward and then downward, scattering a series of small black dots that landed on my hair. When I touched it with my hand, it was hot and wet and smelled foul. It seems that it is deliberately coming to take revenge on me after it has recovered from its injuries.

At that moment, the "tall hat" swept its wings and stabbed the sky, croaking, croaking, croaking, croaking, cawing. All of a sudden, seven or eight crows flew up from the linden tree, all the way in the column, like a well-organized bomber group, swooping down on me, seven or eight bubbles of droppings blossoming all around me. Immediately, the seven or eight crows finished excreting a beautiful flip movement and rose into the sky, I held the stone did not even hit a crow hair down. At this point, the tall hats squawked again, but unlike the last time, the coda was shortened and slightly altered, or rather, squawked, and with the squawk, another group of crows formed a single line and departed from their flying base. This time, instead of swooping down and dropping "bombs" on me, they sprayed droppings at me parallel to the treetops, hitting a little worse, but the rocks in my hand were no threat to them. I was so angry that I ran to the village headman's house to borrow a golden bamboo crossbow, and when the high hat saw it, it made a different pitch and frequency of cries, ee-yah-wow-vomit, ee------yah-wow-vomit, saying, "Danger, this man has a golden bamboo crossbow in his hand, don't fly down, the crows will fly higher up in the sky and continue to bombard me with droppings in a carpet, not to mention the crossbow. crossbow arrows, even the bird gun will never be able to shoot them down.