CORVUS THE CROW 



601 



sidewalk in the evening. A New Bedford Crow was be- 

 ginning to display some conversational ability and had 

 learned to chase the cats off the back fence when he 

 died from eating flies from flypaper. A young Crow 

 that was captured in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, de- 

 veloped a violent and unaccountable antipathy to any- 

 thing of its own color. While coming home on the train 

 this bird raised an unusual rumpus every time the colored 

 porter came in sight, much to the amusement of the pas- 

 sengers. If a piece of black cloth was dropped in the 

 yard the Crow would make off, scolding as long as the 

 cloth was in sight. This bird learned several phrases 

 such as "Oh, go on !" "Now you did it !" etc. Another 

 Crow, at Hopkinton, made friends with all human com- 

 panions excepting a boy who 

 clipped its wing. After that 

 the bird would have noth- 

 ing more to do with that 

 boy. If any one threw water 

 on this bird it made sounds 

 like the profanity of an 

 angry man. Mr. Adelbert 

 Temple writes, however, 

 that it delights in bathing 

 and will pull the plug out of 

 a water pipe to spray water 

 over its feathers. Mr. 

 James Knight, of Ames- 

 bury, had a tame Crow. He 

 says that brother Tom some- 

 times overslept. At such 

 times his honored sire, 

 standing beneath the win- 

 dow, shouted most emphat- 

 ically, "Tom, get up !" The 

 Crow noticed this and 

 learned to rouse Tom and 

 everyone else in the house 

 at daylight each morning by 

 flapping to the boy's window 

 and repeating the call with 

 great emphasis. One day 

 the boys had a bonfire in 



mollusks, such as sea clams and scallops. They seize 

 the clams in their claws and flying high drop them on 

 the rocks or the hard ground. If the first fall fails to 

 break the shell the clam is taken higher and again 

 dropped, until the shell gives way. Sometimes the strong 

 shell resists until it has been dropped four or five times. 

 This recalls an old tale of my school days regarding a 

 Crow which chose the bald head of an ancient philos- 

 opher as a suitable object on which to drop its hard-shelled 

 tidbit. The mollusk landed on the right spot but proved 

 harder than the skull of the philosopher. The funeral 

 was well attended. 



Our black imitator shows considerable intelligence in 

 taking advantage of other creatures. It is not easy for 



Crows to get shellfish, as 

 clams usually keep well 

 buried in the mud. Years 

 ago, about Puget Sound, 

 hogs were allowed to run at 

 large, and at low tide they 

 worked out upon the flats, 

 where they rooted out com- 

 mon clams, razor clams and 

 other marine animals. Often 

 a Crow might be seen 

 perched between a hog's 

 ears, from which point of 

 vantage it sometimes was 

 able to snatch clam or razor 

 fish from the hog's champ- 

 ing jaws. The Crows there 

 at that time were rarely 

 troubled by the inhabitants, 

 white or red, and were as 

 tame as street sparrows. At 

 times one was seen to alight 

 on the highest point of the 

 "rear elevation" of a bent- 

 over, clam-digging klootch- 

 man or squaw, in the hope 



Photograph by Edward Howe Forbush of SCiziug SOmC of the TC- 



TAME CROW LOOKING FOR TROUBLE 



, 1 /- These birds take peculiar dislikes to certain things. This 



the held. Jack, as the Crow fellow has a particular antipathy for dogs, one of which he sees 

 was called had been watch- '" ^^^ "^^^ distance, so he is preparing for trouble, 

 ing the exciting scene and 



listening to wild hurrahs; he soon surprised them by 

 hurrahing virith the rest. After that, whenever he no- 

 ticed a cloud of smoke rising from the chimney he sa- 

 luted it with rousing cheers. 



When we observe the talent for mimicry and imitation 

 exhibited by young Crows in domestication we cease to 

 wonder that now and then a wild Crow is seen or heard 

 to imitate some unusual sound or to reproduce some 

 noticeable action of another creature. Some Crows have 

 learned to catch fish, possibly from watching sea gulls, 

 as they fly down and snatch the fish from the water 

 in exactly the sea-gull manner. Others resort to gull tac- 

 tics in order to break open the shells of hard-shelled 



suits of the digger's patient 



toil. 



A treeless island on the 



northwestern boundary of 



the United States was oc- 

 cupied by a colony of gulls and guillemots. There was no 

 wooded island within a mile. Therefore, whenever the 

 natives disturbed the sea birds and drove them from 

 their nests the Crows, which always came from other 

 islands to feast on the eggs of the sea birds at such 

 times, must fly a mile or more to reach the spot. Those 

 on the nearest islands arrived first, followed by those 

 from more distant points. One pair of Crows stole a 

 march on their brethren by digging a hole in the ground 

 on top of the gull island and building a nest in this hole, 

 like that of a song sparrow in a ditch bank. Whenever 

 any disturbance arose these Crows and their young al- 

 ways had first chance at the eggs and young of the sea 



