THE MUSEUM. 



311 



them, and likely is yet. They are as- 

 tute birds, keeping well out of the 

 way of man, seeming to know a gun 

 from a stick. A pair built a nest in 

 Logan Square and probably raised 

 their young. As birds, animals, etc., 

 are safe from molestation in these pub- 

 lic parks, and can rear their young 

 free from danger of attack by man, 

 they soon acquire a degree of con- 

 fidence." 



John A. Bryant, Kansas City, Mo. — 

 "To the public, the best known bird 

 of all our species is the Crow. This 

 species is noted for its thievishness,and 

 its high degree of cunning seems to go 

 beyond mere instinct. It feeds prin- 

 cipally on carrion, fish and insects,and 

 the young and eggs of both birds and 

 reptiles. Last Spring I was a witness 

 to this bird's great voraciousness. I 

 was driving along a country road when 

 I noticed a Crow fly down into a farm 

 yard, close to a hen with a number of 

 chickens about two weeks old; it sin- 

 gled out a straggler, and deliberately 

 pecked it two or three times, entirely 

 disabling it. The chick's cry of dis- 

 tress brought the angry parent to the 

 rescue. The Crow was driven away 

 a few paces; but a moment later, when 

 the hen's attention was drawn away 

 from the wounded chick, the Crow 

 seized his struggling victim, and flying 

 a short distance, devoured it. 



"As another case of this species' 

 greediness, as well as its acute sense 

 of danger, I will relate the following- 

 experiment and its result. One day 

 last May, while fishing, I noticed a 

 Crow in the top of a dead tree, fifty 

 yards or more away. It was constant- 

 ly cawing and apparantly watching 

 me. Remembering the old darkey's 

 adage, "A Crow knows a gun," I 



thought it a good. time to test the say- 

 ing, so picking up my wooden fishing- 

 rod case, I walked toward the tree 

 where the bird was perched some sixty 

 feet from the ground. Having reached 

 the tree I walked around the trunk 

 and back to the creek, where I had 

 left my gun, wiihout the bird taking 

 wing. On reaching the creek, I sub- 

 stituted the gun for the rod case, and 

 again started for the tree. I had 

 scarcely taken a dozen st^s ere the 

 Crow decamped to another tree, nor 

 could I approace within gun shot. I 

 then placed my gun on the ground 

 and attempted to get closer, but I 

 found it as wary as before; the sight of 

 the gun had destroyed all former con- 

 fidence. On my return to the creek, 

 my companion, who was further up the 

 stream, called to me to brmg my gun. 

 I immediately complied with his re- 

 quest, leaving the fish I had caught 

 submerged in the water on a string. 

 I was absent probably an hour. On 

 approaching, I observed a Crow sit- 

 ting on a tree above where I had left 

 the string of fish. Suspecting some 

 mischief from its excited actions, I ran 

 forward quickly to see what was up. 

 The Crow cawed rapidly three or four 

 times and flew swiftly away. Simul- 

 taneously from the waters edge arose 

 two more Crows, acting on the signal 

 given by the sentinel, in the tree. As 

 they were eating the fish below the 

 creek bank, they could not possibly 

 have seen or heard my approach. I 

 found nothing remaining excepting ten 

 eyeless heads strung on the cord, the 

 Crows hsving pulled the string from 

 the water and eaten the fish on the 

 ground. 



' 'The great Crow roosts of the Mid- 

 dle States, famous in pioneer days, 



