THE CROW 



ried off my chickens ; these things I could 

 provide against; I was his enemy because 

 he robbed birds' nests by the wholesale. It 

 did not take me long to find out that this black 

 imp prevented the increase of song-birds in 

 cultivated fields and the adjoining woodlands. 



I brought with me my hatred of the crow 

 when I dropped into the woods of Cape Ann, 

 and for several years I made life miserable 

 for his kind with trap and shotgun. 



Ten years ago, influenced by the articles in 

 Forest and Stream on game protection, I laid 

 aside my gun and devoted more time to the 

 study of the wild things. The crows got the 

 benefit of this change. I should have con- 

 tinued my warfare if the crows had plundered 

 the birds' nests in my vicinity. King-birds 

 nested near my cabin, and during the nesting- 

 season crows and hawks were very careful to 

 give the locality a wide berth. At other times 

 the king-birds did not go far from home to 

 attack the crows, and the latter made them- 

 selves at home in my dooryard, after I had 

 ceased to persecute them. 

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