Report of Missouri Farmers' Week. 549 



very young chicken. Such incidents I believe to be rare. More 

 frequently they form the habit of pilfering other birds' nests, but 

 I very much doubt whether such habits are nearly as common as 

 they are believed to be. Few persons realize that it is possible for 

 a bird or animal to form bad habits as readily as for a boy or man 

 to do so. In my opinion such habits are acquired and, of course, 

 frequently learned from one another. When a jay takes to robbing 

 nests and our attention is attracted to the incident, it makes a 

 strong impression upon our minds. Seldom, however, do we take 

 the necessary time to carefully watch other birds of the same 

 species and give them an opportunity to prove their innocence of 

 the same crime. While I have known jays to pilfer as above 

 stated, I have also known them to live on perfectly good terms 

 with other birds, nesting in the same grove and even in. the same 

 tree. It is one of the very few birds fond of the hairy caterpillars, 

 such as the tent caterpillar. 



THE CROW. 



The crow is another much abused bird. Being very intelligent, 

 it learns bad habits all the more easily. They are charged with all 

 kinds of bad habits, from eating eggs and young chickens to pull- 

 ing up corn. Personally, I have had them eat my turkey eggs from 

 pure-bred stock, when each egg was worth twenty-five cents. I 

 have also had them take the young chickens. I have given special 

 study to this bird for a number of years and feel very certain that 

 such habits are not very general among them. In one instance 

 crows were very numerous about our premises and about our 

 neighbors also. We suffered great annoyance from the constant 

 loss of young chickens by an old black rascal who conferred similar 

 attention, to our neighbors. One day he was killed in the act, and 

 thereafter, although the rest of the flock continued to come about 

 as freely as before, they gave us no further trouble. I was thus 

 satisfied that the one crow was the only one in the flock that killed 

 young chickens. 



A similar instance came to my attention not long since, of a 

 man who lived in a neighborhood where crows, though abundant, 

 were never troublesome. One spring he had a lot of incubator 

 chickens, and losing a number instead of burying them, as he should 

 have done, he threw them out where the crows could readily get 

 them. He thus taught the crows the habit of eating the young 

 chickens, and was soon troubled so badly that he had great difficulty 



