AMERICAN CROW 239 



eighteen inches long, for its hind toe makes a sharp 

 scratch four or five inches long before it settles, and 

 when it lifts its foot again, it makes two other fine 

 scratches with its middle and outer toe on each side, 

 the first some nine inches long, the second six. The 

 inner toe is commonly close to the middle one. It 

 makes a peculiar curving track (or succession of curves), 

 stepping round the planted foot each time with a 

 sweep, thus: — 



You would say that it toed in decidedly and walked 

 feebly. It must be that they require but little and 

 glean that very assiduously. 



March 4, 1859. What a perfectly New England 

 sound is this voice of the crow ! If you stand perfectly 

 still anywhere in the outskirts of the town and listen, 

 stilling the almost incessant hum of your own personal 

 factory, this is perhaps the sound which you will be 

 most sure to hear rising above all sounds of human 

 industry and leading your thoughts to some far bay in 

 the woods where the crow is venting his disgust. This 

 bird sees the white man come and the Indian with- 

 draw, but it withdraws not. Its untamed voice is still 

 heard above the tinkling of the forge. It sees a race 

 pass away, but it passes not away. It remains to re- 

 mind us of aboriginal nature. 



March 5, 1859. I see crows walking about on the ice 

 half covered with snow in the middle of the meadows, 

 where there is no grass, apparently to pick up the worms 

 and other insects left there since the midwinter freshet. 



