Sec. 11.] BIRDS. 179 



shall be happy to be set right, but we believe that facts are against t!ic birds ; 

 yet if this be so, the circumstance is not to their discredit. They are the 

 liuniorists, the musicians, the conversationists of the animal world; so fully 

 occupied in talking, singing, joking, eating, and rearing their families, tliat 

 they have little time to devote to those immense beings, pantalooned or 

 hooped, whom they undoubtedly regard from their airy hights with a sort 

 of contempt, as they behold them slowly plodding along, contined to the dull 

 earth and unable to take a flight even equal to that of one of their newly- 

 fledged offspring ; and if they condescend to pick up a few crumbs scattered 

 by some gentle hand, they feel as little of the emotion of gratitude to their 

 benefactor, as the squirrel to the chestnut-tree which rains upon him his 

 winter's supply. A certain degree of brain development is necessary for the 

 existence of this emotion, and birds, in this respect, are inferior to most of 

 the quadrupeds with which we are lamiliar. 



Birds do not seem to be as susceptible as quadrupeds to kind treatment, 

 and those species which have been domesticated ajqioar to have lost what- 

 ever " smartness" they may originally have possessed. The whole tribe of 

 domestic fowls — cocks, hens, ducks, geese, guinea-fowls, turkeys, pea-fowls — 

 are unmitigatedly stupid — acute in nothing but picking up corn and devas- 

 tating gardens. 



The crow is one of the birds that unthinking men destroy, because they 

 jiull up a little corn in the spring. Will you think what else he does ? 



lie consumes in the year vast quantities of grubs, worms, and noxious 

 vermin ; he is a valuable scavenger, and clears the land of oft'ensive masses 

 of deceased animal substances ; he hunts the grain fields, and pulls out and 

 devours the underground caterjiiilars, whenever he perceives the signs of 

 their operations, as evinced by tlie wilted stalks ; he destroys mice, young 

 rats, lizards, and small snakes ; lastly, he is a volunteer sentinel about the 

 farm, and drives tlie hawk from its inclosure, thus jireventing greater mis- 

 chief than that of which he himself is guilty. It is ciiictly during seed-time 

 nnd harvest that the depredations of the crow are committed ; during the 

 remainder of the year we witness only his services, wiiich are so appreciated 

 by those who have M-ritten of birds, that I can not name an ornithologist 

 who does not plead in his behalf. 



Frighten the crows, but do not kill thom, except one to use to keep his 

 fellows off your corn. Pick ofl' part of his feathers and scatter tlicm on some 

 spot in the field easily seen, and near by lay the carcass of the dead crow 

 and you will see his late companion sailing over the field and looking down 

 upon what lias been done, but very careful not to ligiit where he too might 

 fall a victim. If you can not kill a crow, you may make a very good show 

 of a dead one with a black hen. .Crows are too valuable as vermin-destroy- 

 ers on a farm to bo wantotdy destroyed l)ecause they i>ull up a little corn. 



A writer at Eaton, N. Y., sends us the following item in favor of the per- 

 secuted crow, which makes him out not quite so black as he looks — that is, 

 when seen by the eyes of some of his enemies. Uc says : 



