SOME MISCHIEF-MAKERS 123 
first snowfall hard times set in for the Crow. He cannot 
search the bark crevices for insects like the small tree- 
trunk birds with slender bills; people do not welcome him 
to their farm-yards and scatter grain for him, or leave 
him free to glean, as they do the other winter birds. It is 
at this time, when the hand of man is turned against him, 
that the Crow really works in man’s interest by catching 
meadow-mice and many other small destructive animals. 
“At this time, the Crow eats frozen apples, poison-ivy 
berries, acorns, beech and chestnuts, and the like. But 
now he grows poor and thin and his voice is querulous, 
and from November to March the Crow is put to it for a 
living. ‘Poor as a Crow’ is an apt saying. 
THE CROW 
Then it is a distant cawing, 
Growing louder — coming nearer, 
Tells of crows returning inland 
From their winter on the marshes. 
Iridescent is their plumage, 
Loud their voices, bold their clamour. 
In the pools and shallows wading, 
Or in overflowing meadows 
Searching for the waste of winter — 
Scraps and berries freed by thawing. 
Weird their notes and hoarse their croaking 
Silent only when the night comes. 
— Frank BOLuges. 
“With the thawing out of the ground in spring, the 
Crow begins to view the world differently. The search 
for insects still continues, and the corn now gleaned is 
