THE OOLOQI8T 



109 



A BIOGRAPHY OF THE AMERICAN 

 CROW 



Much has been written about ilie 

 Crow; much still remains unwritten. 

 This paper is offered with the hope 

 that it will add something to already 

 existing knowledge of the Crow's 

 habits, and while I admit that many 

 of the notes given below on the Crow's 

 life and character are already well 

 known, I believe the reader will ac- 

 cept these as necessary to make the 

 biography complete. All of the ma- 

 terial used in the article is based en- 

 tirely on original observations of the 

 writer. 



I believe the American Crow and 

 the Robin share the distinction of the 

 being the two best known American 

 birds. Where is the person that is 

 not familiar with both of them? The 

 Robin's cheery carol greets you on 

 spring mornings; the Crow's rasping 

 voice can be heard eclioing from 

 woodland and field at all seasons of 

 the year. There is seldom a time 

 when the country-dweller cannot see 

 the black form of the Crow flying 

 about in some portion of the land- 

 scape or hear him calling to his 

 brethren. The unobserving person 

 cannot see anything interesting about 

 this black bird, cavorting about the 

 blue sky, but to one who has watched 

 the Crow in his various moods and 

 pursuits, he is very interesting, and 

 at times an amusing character. 



The Crow has a' host of enemies. 

 Chief among these is the farmer, and 

 ycu can rarely find a farmer who has 

 a good word to say for the Crow. 

 The farmer can hardly be blamed, 

 though, for when he sees his corn, up- 

 on which he has expended many hours 

 of hard labor to plant, and which is 

 just nicely sprouting, being pulled up 

 and eaten by Crows, it is enough to 

 make any sensible farmer angry, 

 surely. 



It is a common habit among Tur- 

 keys and other domestic fowl to hide 



their nests in some undreamed of, far 

 away place and proceed to lay their 

 eggs there, quite safe from the egg- 

 collecting farmer's wife. Crows are 

 very expert in spying out these nests, 

 and in a very short time the outraged 

 hen will find her secret being pro- 

 claimed to the whole countryside in 

 the loud tones of the Crow. Many 

 Crows flock to the spot and alight in 

 nearby trees and in other convenient 

 places, expectantly waiting for the 

 hen to leave her nest. Some do not 

 alight, but circle about near the nest, 

 excitedly cawing. When discovered 

 in time, a well-ma'de scare-crow will 

 usually safeguard it from attack, for, 

 while the Crow usually regards scare- 

 crows as objects not to be taken too 

 seriously, he invariably draws an 

 imaginary "dead-line" around them 

 and does not dare to venture any 

 nearer than this line for a long time — 

 usually net until several months 

 have passed. A dead Crow, hung in 

 a conspicuous position near the nest, 

 will usually give the same results. 



The Crow is usually misunderstood, 

 however, and it has been proven 

 many times that he is not as black 

 as he is often painted. The Crow's 

 love for sprouting corn, together with 

 his habit of stealing domestic and 

 wild birds' eggs and young occasional- 

 ly seem to be the chief arguments in 

 his disfavor, and when one puts these 

 aside and looks at his numerous 

 virtues which loom up large in pro- 

 portion to his sins, he appears a re- 

 spectable, useful and law-abiding citi- 

 zen, worthy of a' nesting site on every 

 farm. 



From my own experience as a 

 farm-dweller. I have found the Crow 

 to be of value to the farm and not 

 an entirely undesirable resident. I 

 have watched numbers of them fol- 

 low the plow day after day in the 

 spring, in rather a conscientious man- 

 ner, picking up the injurious .June- 

 bugs, white grubs, (and perhaps cut- 



