290 THE WINTER BIRDS. 



animal substances; he hunts the grass-fields and pulls 

 out and devours various cutworms and caterpillars, wher- 

 ever he perceives the marks of their presence as evinced 

 by the wilted stalks ; he destroys mice, young rats, and 

 lizards and the smaller serpents ; and, lastly, he is a 

 volunteer sentinel upon the farm and drives the Hawk 

 from its enclosures. It is chiefly during seed-time and 

 harvest that the depredations of the Crow are committed. 

 During the remainder of the year his acts are all benefits, 

 and so highly are his services appreciated by those who 

 have written on birds that there is hardly an ornithologist 

 that does not plead for his protection. 



Let us turn our attention for a moment to his moral 

 qualities. In vain is he condemned for cunning when 

 without this quality he could not live. His wariness is 

 a virtue, and, surrounded as he is by all kinds of perils, 

 it is his principal means of self-preservation. He has no 

 system of faith and no creed to which he is under obli- 

 gations to offer himself as a martyr. His cunning is his 

 armor ; and I am persuaded that the persecutions which 

 he has always suffered have caused the development of 

 an amount of intelligence that elevates him many degrees 

 above the majority of the feathered race. Hence there 

 are few birds that equal the Crow in sagacity. He ob- 

 serves many things that could be understood, it would 

 seem, only by human intelligence. He judges with ac- 

 curacy from the deportment of the person approaching 

 him, if he is prepared to do him an injury, and seems to 

 pay no regard to one who is strolling the fields in search 

 of flowers or for recreation. On such occasions you may 

 come so near him as to observe his manners and even to 

 note the varying shades of his plumage. But in vain 

 does the gunner endeavor to approach him. So sure is 

 he to fly at the right moment for his safety that one might 

 suppose he could measure the distance of gunshot. 



