236 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



toward me as I stood on " Cornel Rock," and alighted 

 within fifty feet on a dead tree above my head, un- 

 usually bold. Then away go all but one, perchance, to a 

 tall pine in the swamp, twenty rods off ; anon he fol- 

 lows. Again they go quite out of sight amid the tree- 

 tops, leaving one behind. This one, at last, quite at 

 his leisure, flaps away cawing, knowing well where to 

 find his mates, though you might think he must winter 

 alone. 



Minott said that as he was going over to Lincoln one 

 day thirty or forty years ago, taking his way through 

 Ebby Hubbard's woods, he heard a great flock of crows 

 cawing over his head, and one alighted just within gun- 

 shot. He raised his little gun marked London, which 

 he knew would fetch down anything that was within 

 gunshot, and down came the crow ; but he was not 

 killed, only so filled with shot that he could not fly. 

 As he was going by John Wyman's at the pond, with 

 the live crow in his hand, Wyman asked him what he 

 was going to do with that crow, to which he answered, 

 " Nothing in particular," — he happened to alight 

 within gunshot, and so he shot him. Wyman said that 

 he 'd like to have him. " What do you want to do with 

 him?" asked M. "If you'll give him to me, I'll tell 

 you," said the other. To which Minott said, " You may 

 have him and welcome." Wyman then proceeded to 

 inform him that the crows had eaten a great space in 

 Josh Jones the blacksmith's corn-field, which Minott 

 had passed just below the almshouse, and that Jones 

 had told him that if he could kill a crow in his corn- 

 field he would give him half a bushel of rye. He could 



