THE EDUCATIONAL HUMAiNE SOCIETY 



33i 



so extensive that the small amount of 

 grain that he pulls up is not missed 

 and consequently not charged to his 

 account. 



That the crow is sometimes guilty 

 of all the charges in the above indict- 

 ment is no doubt true. That is. cro\\> 

 have at some time been known to com 

 mit all the depredations above men- 

 tioned. That egg-eating is universally 

 practised among crows I very much 

 doubt; that the killing of young poul- 

 try by these birds is not even general 

 is very apparent to me, after observing 

 them carefully for a number of years. 

 In cases where young chickens are be- 

 ing taken by crows, the destruction of 

 the crow in the act usually ends the 

 trouble, although there are still plenty 

 of crows about. It has not, seemingly, 

 dawned upon the public that birds and 

 animals have individual traits of char- 

 acter as well as men. There is a very 

 striking difference in the habits of dif- 

 ferent crows. We have had two tame 

 crows at one time that were as differ- 

 ent in their ways as two children. The 

 ordinary person hears of a crow's 

 catching young fowls, or eating eggs, 

 and makes the mistake of judging that 

 accordingly all crows must be guilty of 

 the same offense. The study of indi- 

 vidual peculiarities in animals offers 

 a very promising and interesting field 

 of research and observation as yet un- 

 explored. 



The crow displays intelligence of a 

 high order, and it is remarkable, in 



view of the general persecution, that 

 they are not apparently diminishing in 

 numbers. That crows have a rather 

 elaborate number of notes, by means 

 of which they communicate with each 

 other will not be doubted by any nat- 

 uralist who has given the matter any 

 thought. I feel sure that with sufn- 

 cient care one can come to know what 

 they mean by different calls. One day, 

 in the early spring, a good many crows 

 were passing over, all bound in the 

 same direction. They did not come in 

 a large flock, all at once, but kept scat- 

 tering along for some time. A sen- 

 tinel posted in the top of a tall tree 

 called "caw-caw, caw-caw, caw-caw, 

 caw," to each bunch that passed. The 

 note was not varied. After watching 

 them for some time and wondering 

 what was meant by these syllables, by 

 which the birds were apparently direct- 

 ed to some point in the distance, I 

 decided to take a hand in the matter 

 myself. So when the next crow came 

 along I gave three short quick notes, 

 in imitation of a crow call, "caw, caw, 

 caw." Although the bird had passed 

 on for some distance, he at once turn- 

 ed and came back to see what was up. 

 Circling about for a minute or two. 

 and seeing nothing, he again started 

 in the same direction. Again I called 

 and again he came back as before. The 

 third time he responded to my call 

 and after wheeling about above my 

 head passed on. The fourth time he 

 came back and flew directly to a nearby 



CROW STUDIES BY MR. PELLETT. 



