52 



THE OOLOGIST. 



of the wood-choppers and I informed 

 them that they wei'e listening to a Crow. 

 They refused to believe it until Mr. 

 Crow varied his speech by going back 

 to his native tongue "Caw, Caw, Caw," 

 many times repeated, and our back- 

 woods callei's admitted that they heard 

 a Crow. 



This Crow had perfect freedom, going 

 where it pleased. At night it retired to 

 a little house, and when one went near, 

 it would become very angiy, bristle up 

 and scold in a very lively manner, seem- 

 ing to know just what words to use for 

 the occasion. 



Mr. Best had a large family ot child- 

 ren, mostly boys. Sometimes he would 

 be in the field and he would hear as he 

 supposed, one of the boys call "Pa! Pa! 

 Pa! Papa," until he went to the house. 

 Reaching there he would find that he 

 had been called by the Crow. When 

 shut up in the granery at one time, he 

 called "Let me out! Let me out! Let 

 me out!" It would go up to a person 

 and inquire "What do you want?" 

 Sometimes it would get very impudent 

 and exclaim "You are a fool! You area 

 liar!" 



Sometimes this Crow would visit my 

 friends. Perched upon a limb of an apple 

 tree it would call out to my j'oung friend 

 Newman Steele, "Newman, how do you 

 do!"Soon it would — perhaps offended be- 

 cause Newman mocked it, exclaim 

 "Newman, you lie! Shut up! You lie! 

 You are a fool ! 



This Crow, like other pet Crows, 

 would occasionally steal, and had his 

 hiding place, but he was a great favorite 

 for all that. As 1 have said he had his 

 liberty and went where he chose, but 

 usually did not go far from the house, 

 spending much of his time in the or- 

 chard. One day a pair of the sports 

 thatinfestthecountry in passing through 

 the orchard saw the Crow and shot him, 

 much to the regret of his owners. 



This Crow was indeed a very remark- 

 able bird. Its vocabulary was indeed 



large, and it seemed to use its words 

 understandingly, at times expressing it- 

 self very aptly. It certainly possessed a 

 a high degree of intelligence. 



Right here I am reminded of an inci- 

 dent that occured at a fair. A parrot 

 was on exhibition at the fair and a large 

 crowd of children were gathered about 

 its cage. One of the girls took a stick and 

 poked at the bird. For a long time it 

 begged, whined, moaned and teased. 

 Suddenly to the great amusement of all 

 near by, the parrot straightened up its 

 neck turned its head, and looking its 

 tormentor squarely in the face it ex- 

 claimed, "Go off! Go off! Gooff! Go 

 off!" For a moment the girl stared in 

 amazement, and then turned away and 

 left the bird alone, while the crowd 

 cheered and roared with laughter. No 

 one else ventured to torment it after 

 this. Soon its mistress came to it, and 

 by word and action, it testified its affec- 

 tion for her in the strongest possible 

 manner, and showed how glad it was to 

 see her in that great crowd of strangers. 

 Here was another evidence of Intelli- 

 gence in birds. 



Wilfred A. Brothertox, 



Rochester, Mich. 



Notes on the Bob-white. 



As this beautiful bird is so well 

 known I will not attempt to describe 

 it. It is distributed over a greater por- 

 tion of the United States, and although 

 it is about extinct in some localities; it 

 is still very plentiful here in Nebraska 

 and Kansas. 



The nest of the Quail is very easy to 

 find, as they build on the ground. It 

 is usually a hollow scratched in the 

 ground well lined and arched over with 

 grass; with an entrance on one side. 

 I remember very distinctly the first 

 Quail's nest I found after I began ta 

 study birds. I was looking for nests 

 too; but did not know that a wad of 



