66 THE PESTS OF THE FAEM. 



por beauty of plumage, .LOP excellence of flesh, no? civility of man- 

 ners to recommend him ; on the contrary, he is br tnded as a thief 

 and a plunderer a kind of black-coated vagabond, who hovers 

 over the fields of the industrious, fattening on their labors, and, by 

 his voracity, often blasting their expectations. Hated as he is by the 

 farmer, watched and persecuted by almost every bearer of a gun, 

 who all triumph in his destruction, had not Heaven bestowed on 

 him intelligence and sagacity far beyond common, there is reason 

 to believe that the whole tribe (in these parts at least) would long 

 ago have ceased to exist. 



The crow is a constant attendant on agriculture, and a general 

 inhabitant of the cultivated parts of North America. In the inte- 

 rior of the forest he is more rare, unless during the season of breed- 

 ing. He is particularly attached to low flat corn countries, lying 

 in the neighborhood of the sea, or of large rivers ; and more nu- 

 merous in the northern than southern states. A strong antipathy, 

 it is said, prevails between the crow and the raven, insomuch, that 

 where the latter is numerous, the former rarely resides. 



The usual breeding time of the crow, is in March, April, and 

 May, during which season they are dispersed over the woods in 

 pairs, and roost in the neighborhood of the tree they have selected 

 for their nest. About the middle of March they begin to build, 

 generally choosing a high tree. 



It is in the month of May, and until the middle of June, that 

 the crow is most destructive to the corn-fields, digging up the 

 newly planted grains of maize, pulling up by the roots those that 

 have begun to vegetate, and thus frequently obliging the farmer to 

 replant, or lose the benefit of the soil ; and this sometimes twice, 

 and even three times, occasioning a considerable additional expense, 

 and inequality of harvest. No mercy is now shown him. The 

 myriads of worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, grubs, and beetles, 

 which he has destroyed, are altogether overlooked on these occa- 

 sions. Detected in robbing the hens' nests, pulling up the corn, 

 and killing the young chickens, he is considered as an outlaw, and 

 sentenced to destruction. But the great difficulty is, how to put 

 this sentence in execution. In vain the gunner skulks along the 

 hedges and fences ; his faithful sentinels, planted on some com- 

 manding point, raise the alarm, and disappoint vengeance of its 

 object. The coast again clear, he returns once more in silence, to 

 finish the repast he had begun. Sometimes he approaches the 

 farm-house by stealth, in search of young chickens, which he is in 



