JABBERING CROW. 213 



withe, to kill and eat it ; and that when a boy, 

 amusing himself by setting springes for small birds, 

 he has occasionally known them to be taken out of 

 the springe by the Jabbering Crow. These state- 

 ments, at least as far as the animal appetite is con- 

 cerned, are in some measure confirmed by an 

 experiment with one I had alive. One day in 

 December, hearing a strange querulous sound pro- 

 ceeding from the top of the woods near me, I sent 

 Sam to find the cause. He ascertained it to proceed 

 from one of two Jabbering Crows, perched side by 

 side on the top of a tree ; the vociferous one being 

 evidently young, though in full plumage, and capa- 

 ble of flight, for it was shivering its wings, while 

 with open beak receiving something from the mouth 

 of the other, doubtless its parent. He shot the old 

 one, and slightly wounding it in the wing, brought 

 it to the ground, where it ran so vigorously, that he 

 had difficulty in securing it. It was rather formid- 

 able too ; for it clutched his hand with its claws so 

 forcibly, as to give pain ; and afterwards, as I was 

 holding it, it nipped my finger with the point of its 

 powerful beak, and took the piece out. When 

 turned into a room, it climbed about the various 

 objects, by walking, and taking considerable jumps, 

 striving to gain the highest elevation it could attain, 

 where it sat, moody, but watchful. I presented to 

 it the flesh of one side of the breast of a bird 

 just skinned. He seized it greedily, and, after 

 carrying it about a little, attempted to swallow it. 

 In this he did not succeed without many efforts, as 

 the piece was large : he several times tried to toss it 



