176 CROW. 



So universal is the hatred to Crows, that few states, either 

 here or in Europe, have neglected to offer rewards for their de- 

 struction. In the United States they have been repeatedly rank- 

 ed in our laws with -the wolves, the panthers, foxes and squir- 

 rels, and a proportionable premium offered for their heads, to be 

 paid by any justice of the peace to whom they are delivered. 

 On all these accounts various modes have been invented for cap- 

 turing them. They have been taken in clap-nets commonly 

 used for taking pigeons; two or three live Crows being pre- 

 viously procured as decoys, or as they are called Stool-crows. 

 Corn has been steeped in a strong decoction of hellebore, which 

 when eaten by them produces giddiness, and finally, it is said, 

 death. Pieces of paper, formed into the shape of a hollow cone, 

 besmeared within with birdlime, and a grain or two of corn 

 dropped on the bottom, have also been adopted. Numbers of 

 these being placed on the ground, where corn has been plant- 

 ed, the Crows attempting to reach the grains are instantly hood- 

 winked, fly directly upwards to a great height; but generally 

 descend near the spot whence they rose, and are easily taken. 

 The reeds of their roosting places are sometimes set on fire du- 

 ring a dark night, and the gunners having previously posted 

 themselves around, the Crows rise in great uproar, and amidst 

 the general consternation, by the light of the burnings, hundreds 

 of them are shot down. 



Crows have been employed to catch Crows, by the following 



the village of St. Georges, in the state of Delaware, on Monday, the 6th inst, 

 to receive pix>posals of John Deputy, on a plan for banishing or destroying the 

 Crows. Mr. Deputy's plan, being heard and considered, was approved, and a 

 committee appointed to contract with him, and to procure the necessary funds 

 to carry the same into effect. Mr. Deputy proposes that for five hundred dol- 

 lars he will engage to kill or banish the Crows from their roost on the Pea-Patch, 

 and give security to return the money on failure. 



" The sum of five hundred dollars being thus required, the committee beg 

 leave to address the farmers and others of Newcastle county, and elsewhere, 

 on the subject" 



