CROW. 177 



stratagem. A live Crow is pinned by the wings down to the 

 ground on his back, by means of two sharp, forked sticks. Thus 

 situated, his cries are loud and incessant, particularly if any oth- 

 er Crows are within view. These sweeping down about him, 

 are instantly grappled by the prostrate prisoner, by the same 

 instinctive impulse that urges a drowning person to grasp at 

 every thing within his reach. Having disengaged the game 

 from his clutches, the trap is again ready for another experiment; 

 and by pinning down each captive, successively, as soon as ta- 

 ken, in a short time you will probably have a large flock scream- 

 ing above you, in concert with the outrageous prisoners below. 

 Many farmers, however, are content with hanging up the 

 skins, or dead carcasses, of Crows, in their corn-fields by way 

 of terrorem; others depend altogether on the gun, keeping one 

 of their people supplied with ammunition, and constantly on 

 the look-out. In hard winters, the Crows suffer severely, so 

 that they have been observed to fall down in the fields, and on 

 the roads, exhausted with cold and hunger. In one of these 

 winters, and during a long continued deep snow, more than 

 six hundred Crows were shot on the carcass of a dead horse, 

 which was placed at a proper distance from the stable, from a 

 hole of which the discharges were made. The premiums awar- 

 ded for these, with the price paid for the quills, produced near- 

 ly as much as the original value of the horse, besides, as the 

 man himself assured me, saving feathers sufficient for filling a 

 bed. 



The Crow is easily raised and domesticated; and it is only 

 when thus rendered unsuspicious of, and placed on terms of fa- 

 miliarity with, man, that the true traits of his genius, and na- 

 tive disposition, fully develop themselves. In this state he 

 soon learns to distinguish all the members of the family; flies 

 towards the gate, screaming at the approach of a stranger; learns 

 to open the door by alighting on the latch ; attends regularly at 

 the stated hours of dinner and breakfast; which he appears 

 punctually to recollect; is extremely noisy and loquacious; im- 

 itates the sound of various words, pretty distinctly ; is a great 



VOL. i. 3 c 



