122 CROW. 



ternally of sticks, wet moss, thin bark mixed with mossy earth, and 

 lined with large quantities of horse hair, to the amount of more than 

 half a pound, some cow hair, and some wool, forming a very soft and 

 elastic bed. The eggs are four, of a pale green color, marked with 

 numerous specks and blotches of olive. 



During this interesting season, the male is extremely watchful, making 

 frequent excursions of half a mile or so in circuit, to reconnoitre ; and 

 the instant he observes a person approaching, he gives the alarm, when 

 both male and female retire to a distance, till the intruder has gone 

 past. He also regularly carries food to his mate while she is sitting ; 

 occasionally relieves her ; and when she returns, again resigns up his 

 post. At this time also, as well as until the young are able to fly, they 

 preserve uncommon silence, that their retreat may not be suspected. 



It is in the pionth of May, and until the middle of June, that the 

 Crow is most destructive to the corn-fields, digging up the newly planted 

 grains of maize, pulling up by the roots those that have begun to vegetate, 

 and thus frequently obliging the farmer to replant, or lose the benefit 

 of the soil ; and this sometimes twice, and even three times, occasioning 

 a considerable additional expense and inequality of harvest. No mercy 

 is now shown him. The myriads of worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, 

 grubs and beetles, which he has destroyed, are altogether overlooked on 

 these occasions. Detected in robbing the hens' nests, pulling up the 

 corn, and killing the- young chickens, he is considered as an outlaw, and 

 sentenced to destruction. But the great difficulty is, how to put this 

 sentence in execution. In vain the gunner skulks along the hedges and 

 fences ; his faithful sentinels, planted on some commanding point, raise 

 the alarm, and disappoint vengeance of its object. The coast again 

 clear, he returns once more in silence to finish the repast he had begun. 

 Sometimes he approaches the farm-house by stealth, in search of young 

 chickens, which he is in the habit of snatching off, when he can elude 

 the vigilance of the mother hen, who often proves too formidable for 

 him. A few days ago a Crow was observed eagerly attempting to seize 

 some young chickens in an orchard, near the room where I write ; but 

 these clustering close round the hen, she resolutely defended them, 

 drove the Crow into an apple-tree, whither she instantly pursued him 

 with such spirit and intrepidity, that he was glad to make a speedy 

 retreat, and abandon his design. 



The Crow himself sometimes falls a prey to the superior strength and 

 rapacity of the Great Owl, whose weapons of ofl'ence are by far the 

 more formidable of the two.* 



* "A few years ago," says an obliging correspondent. "I resided on the banks 

 of the Hudson, about seven miles from the city of New York. Not far from the 

 place of my residence was a pretty thick wood or swamp, in which great numbers 

 of Crows, who used to cross the river from the opposite shore, were accustomed to 



