I go 



AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



then slyly sneaks up and in an instant the destruction is complete. Al- 

 though a large bird, he is very cowardly and will flee from any of the 

 smaller birds if they detect him in the act. 



Mr. Walter E. Burnham, Greenfield, Mass., writes: — "We hear a great 

 deal about the destructiveness of the crow, and no doubt it is true to some 

 extent. Even if it is 1 should be sorry to see all the crows exterminated. 

 They are so bold and independent in their way, that one soon learns to 

 like them (if he has no corn for them to pull up). To me the scene of an 

 autumn cornfield lacks something if a few crows are not flapping over it; 

 and a September sunrise is incomplete if a crow is not cawing, somewhere 

 in the distance. Every fall 1 see enormous flocks flying southwards along 

 the river, and numbers of them winter in the Deerfield meadows. 1 have 

 seen them walking upon the ice within a few inches of the channel, 

 caused by the rapidly flowing water, searching for any refuse that might 

 be washed up. In the spring the crows that left in the fall return and 

 spend a few days together sporting in the wind. On a mountain east of 

 €f my house used to be a large pine, and every morning in the spring and 

 fall the crows held many meetings in this tree. 



"They spread out over the country as the weather moderates and 

 breed in May. When the female crow is setting, she frequently squawks 

 like a setting hen, and 1 have found many nests, because of this. If she 

 hears you coming, or the male warns her, she invariably slips quietly 



Photo by J. B. PaRDOE. 



YOUNG GROWS (Just able to tly). 



