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Bird -Lore 



pull up corn shortly after it has sprouted. They do this to get the grain of 

 seed-corn, which has become softened by contact with the soft 

 His Foes earth. Then, too, as the grain begins to germinate, the starch it 



contains turns to sugar, and thus there is made a dainty tidbit 

 which is quite to the liking of a hungry Crow. Very naturally, therefore, the 

 farmer seeks to rid the neighborhood of these black-feathered visitors. Time 

 and again he takes his gun and sallies forth; but no sooner does he enter the 

 field where the birds are feeding than an old Crow, which has established him- 

 self as a sentinel on some tree or fence-stake, gives a warning ^caw^ that all 



A CROW BROODING UPON ITS NEST 



of his friends understand, and in a moment the entire flock takes flight to the 

 nearest woods, where they calmly await the departure of their disturber. 



Now and then the farmer or his boy, by hiding among the trees or along a 

 fence, succeeds in shooting a Crow\ When this is accomplished, the bird's 

 body is often tied to a pole, which is then set up in the field as a warning to 

 the bird's fellows of the fate that awaits them if they persist in returning. A 

 chorus of jeering caws is often the only answer the farmer gets for his 

 trouble, for let no one ever forget that the Crow^ is about the smartest bird 

 of which we have any knowledge. If he were not a bird of most unusual 

 wisdom, his race would long since have passed away. Think of the hundreds 

 of thousands of farmers who, through the centuries, have tried every possible 

 means of destroying these birds! No law in any state protects them, and many 



