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Mouse-Catching by Birds 



The very best mouse-catcher I ever saw 

 was a pet Crow. One can talk of the work 

 of Owls and Hawks, but must allow to 

 the Crow credit for a certain kind of 

 thoroughness which should accomplish a 

 great good wherever the short-tailed 

 meadow mouse can thrive. Tame Ducks 

 and Chickens also destroy mice, but let 

 me first tell of what I have seen Crows do. 



Every winter an army of Crows arrives 

 with thawing weather. Frost and snow 

 have beaten down the meadow grass, 

 leaving the mouse paths underneath 

 plainly visible and rendering easily found 

 the conical mass of grass that forms each 

 warm bed in which the mice live. The 

 hungry Crows walk over nearly every 

 likely foot of the meadows and pull to 

 pieces nests on every side. They also pick 

 loose bark from stumps and dead trees, 

 pry under brush piles and roots, in fact 

 act the part of very able terriers. Of 

 course it is not always mice they are after. 

 I must acknowledge, also, that I have 

 seen only one wild Crow with a mouse in 

 its bill, though I have seen them pulling 

 up nests on many occasions, and once 

 have found a mouse hiding under a piece 

 of ice in a corn field while three Crows 

 tried to get at him. This was a common 

 house mouse that had been waylaid in 

 the act of running over the snow from 

 one shock to another. 



My pet Crow, Toby, would instantly 

 catch and kill every mouse I let out of 

 a trap. This was apparently his greatest 

 diversion. He also watched for rats by 

 the hour, though never daring to descend 

 from a safely remote perch. When a large 

 one scurried out to the garbage, Toby 

 would shufiie about in utmost excitement, 

 rufiling his feathers and shaking his head, 

 as if saying, "That one's too much for 

 me." Perhaps, poor fellow, he foresaw his 

 fate, for he was caught one night and partly 

 eaten by the very rats he used to watch. 



(2 



Muscovy Ducks soon acquire the habit 

 of following the plow. I once saw four 

 partly grown field-mice turned up in a 

 furrow and eaten by these Ducks which 

 happened to be in search of earth-worms 

 at the time. On another occasion, I saw 

 a Muscovy catch and gravely swallow a 

 full-grown house mouse. This mouse had 

 a record. It lived regularly in a large 

 corn-crib under the box for shelled corn, 

 and when disturbed dashed into the pile 

 of ears and escaped. 



Traps failed to catch this wily little 

 fellow and, though he lost half a tail, he 

 lived there nearly a year and met his 

 death only through a Duck. I tried the 

 experiment of blocking his road to the 

 corn by propping a broad board across 

 the crib and running out a piece of tin at 

 the edges. As soon as I was ready, I 

 called the Chickens and the Ducks which 

 were used to being fed there, and then 

 lifted the big box. There was a moment of 

 suspense, and then out from a cosy nest 

 sprang the short-tailed mouse and into 

 the board he dashed. Rather than climb 

 over he rushed along it, and before he 

 knew what had happened was dropped 

 out of the crib by the slippery shoot of tin 

 at the edge. Chickens were all around, 

 but he dodged among them and was 

 almost at the barn when he found the 

 Muscovy Duck in his path and slowed up. 

 Instantly the duck seized him, waddled a 

 step or two with him in its bill, and then 

 gravely swallowed everything. 



Hens twice caught mice for me at the 

 same crib, but they invariably grabbed 

 the mouse by the tail and carried him 

 around in that unstable fashion for a long 

 time, the whole yard of fowls in pursuit. 

 The mouse would get away by climbing 

 up and pinching the Hen's neck, where- 

 upon he would be seized by another Hen, 

 and so on until he was tired out and easily 

 finished by a few pecks. After that, he 

 was always eaten with great relish. 



I am afraid domestic fowls rarely have 

 46) 



