Mr Audubon's Account of the Carrion Crow* 157 



but so remarkably wary, that no person can approach within 

 gunshot of them without great difficulty. 



On the Mississippi, Missouri, and adjacent countries, the 

 carrion crow abounds, even sometimes during winter. The 

 cold is less troublesome to them than the turkey-buzzard, and 

 I have often seen them near St Genevieve, and also on the 

 upper parts of the Wabash river during severe frosts, and when 

 much snow lay on the ground. In all these places they are 

 quite shy, a fact which I can only ascribe to the scarcity of 

 food in colder countries, and to the little regard which is paid 

 to them on account of their utility. In the states where they 

 are suffered to remain without molestation, and have become ac- 

 customed to the society of man, they will suffer one to walk 

 within a few feet of them ; but yet they keep an eye on every 

 passenger, and know so well their intentions from their move- 

 ments, that if a boy has an Indian bow, a gun, a bow and ar- 

 row, or a pebble in his hand, the crow will instantaneously take 

 wing, or hop off sideways at a quick rate, uttering a hissing 

 noise much coarser than that of the turkey-buzzard. 



In the cities where they are protected they enter the very 

 kitchen, and feed on whatever is thrown to them, even on 

 vegetables. If unmolested, they will remain in the same pre- 

 mises for months, flying to the roof at dusk to spend the 

 night. Six or seven are often seen standing in cotd weather 

 round the funnel of a chimney, apparently enjoying the heat 

 from the smoke. 



Notwithstanding the penalties imposed by law, a number 

 of those birds are destroyed on account of their audacious 

 pilfering. They seize young pigs as great dainties. They 

 watch the cackling hen in order to get the fresh egg from her 

 nest, and they will not hesitate to swallow a brood of young 

 ducks. In order to keep them from the roofs of houses where 

 their dung is detrimental, the inhabitants guard the top with 

 broken pieces of glass fastened in mortar, and they often kill 

 them by throwing boiling water upon them. No fewer than 

 200 of these birds are daily fed by the city of Natchez. 



In following the carrion crow to its haunts in the woods* 

 I discovered that they remained nearer the plantations than 

 the buzzards, and were more addicted to wait there for the 



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