AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 157 



A Pet Cro\v. 



Looking one morning in June out of my window, I saw two Crows fly- 

 ing about a certain small tree, and making a great fuss. 



Immediately I started for the woods to see what was the matter, and 

 when 1 arrivee there the Crows flew away, and I saw a young Crow sit- 

 ting on a branch of this tree. It sat on the limb and gazed at me, and I 

 walked up and caught it in my hands. Then it began to squawk and the 

 old birds flew around near by but soon went off. Then I took my captive 

 home, put him in an old cage, and gave him some bread and water. 



At first he would eat nothing, but when I gave him a few pieces of raw 

 meat he ate them eagerly. Soon he would eat bread soaked in milk, but 

 he never drank water, so I gave him milk instead. He would eat a few 

 worms but he never cared as much for them as he did for raw meat. 



We called him Lucky, because, I suppose, he was caught on the 13th 

 of the month. Lucky was a very bright Crow, and when he wanted food 

 he would begin to squawk, and keep on squawking until some one came 

 to feed him. 



At first we had to push food into his mouth but after a while he learned 

 to feed himself. 



During this time his parents had not forgotten him, for they came to 

 see him every morning, that is they came as near as they dared to come, 

 and kept up a loud cawing while they were near. 



One day Lucky pushed open the door of his cage and after hopping 

 around on the ground for a while he began to fly. In about half an hour 

 he was sitting on the top of a tall chestnut tree, taking his first good look 

 at the world. But his view was cut short, for a friend of mine climbed up 

 and brought Lucky down. 



After awhile we got tired of hearing Lucky squawk so I carried him 

 over into the woods and let him go. But that afternoon a man who lived 

 in the next house saw Lucky and climbed up into a pine tree and caught 

 him. This man called him Joe and kept him in his barn for a time. 



Joe, or Lucky Joe, as we now called him, grew very tame and would 

 follow the man like a dog. When the man was hoeing in his garden Joe 

 would sit on his master's shoulder and talk to him. But the minute he 

 saw a worm he would jump down and get it. 



The man taught Joe several tricks, one of which was as follows: Joe 

 would be standing on the ground when his master would give him a small 

 stick and then say, "Now Joe I am going to get that stick." Immediate- 

 ly Joe would dodge behind a tree and the man would chase him. Round 

 and round they would go, sometimes Joe would run to the next tree and 

 continue dodging around that, until at last he would get tired, and then he 

 would fly off. 



