"Our 'jungle' crows are disappearing," my Buddhist scholar friend Gene Reeves wrote from Tokyo.

"For years, if I looked out my living room window I could see at least a dozen or two of crows. And, once upon a time, when they were quite plentiful, one would walk into our dining room, take a taste of one or two house plants, and walk out."

I at once became apprehensive. Did Tokyo start "dealing with" crows? Several years ago a Japanese friend in the same city had written to grumble: "The crows are menacing us. There are too many of them. Something must be done about them." He lived near Meiji Shrine at the time.