1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



103 



For the New England Fanner. 

 PORTRAITS 

 FEOM THE FIELD AND FARM YARD. 



BY WILSON F L A G G . 

 THE CROW. 



The crow is one of the most remarkable and well 

 known of all our winter birds. Every one is famil- 

 iar with his black plumage, his peculiar manners 

 and his croaking voice. Unfortunately, he is re- 

 garded with an evil eye, and there is no other bird 

 that suffers such general persecution. In no king- 

 dom or province is he protected either by custom 

 or superstition, and there is no peace for him in any 

 part of the earth where man resides. Remember- 

 ingthe mischief he does by plundering a few 

 grains of corn in the sowng season, and forgetting 

 the benefits he confers by the destruction of myri- 

 ads of noxious insects, the farmer looks upon him 

 as the enemy of his crops, and destroys his species 

 by every means which he can invent ; as an excuse 

 for this atrocity he is accused of all sorts of imami- 

 able and wicked propensities. He is abused for his 

 cunning, his stealth, his mischievousness and his 

 habits of thieving. But his stealings might justly 

 be regarded as the perquisites attached to his of- 

 fice as scavenger and destroyer of vermin. His cun- 

 ning is the natural result of' the machinations made 

 against him on all sides, and the traps that are con- 

 stantly set for his destruction. 



His wariness is really a %-irtue ; because under 

 the circumstances in vv'hich he is placed, it is one of 

 his principal means of self-preservation ; and I am 

 persuaded that the persecutions to which he has 

 always been subjected have caused the development 

 of an amount of intelligence that elevates him many 

 degrees above the majority of the feathered race. 

 Let one be born with no more sagacity than a com- 

 mon hen or turkey, and he would not escape the 

 snares of his enemies a week after he had left the 

 maternal nest. There are few birds more interest- 

 ing from their manifestations of intelligence. He 

 observes many things that seem to require reason 

 in the observer. He knows at once from the de- 

 portment of the person whom he sees, whether he 

 is prepared to do him an injury, and takes but little 

 notice of one who is strolling the fields in search of 

 flowers, or for recreation. Such a person may ap- 

 proach so near him as to observe his manners, and 

 even to note the varying shades of his plumage. 

 Neither does he seem to regard the presence of a 

 party iii a chaise or on horseback ; but if you have 

 a gun in your hand, you can hardly get sight of 

 one for the whole day. 



The crow is by no means destitute of beau- 

 ty. His coat of glossy black, with violet reflec- 

 tions ; his hazel eyes and intelligent look ; his state- 

 ly and graceful gait, and his steady and equable 

 flight, notwthstanding his want of brilliant colors, 

 combine to yield him a handsome and dignified ap- 

 pearance. The crow, and his congener, the raven, 



have always been celebrated for their gravity an 



appearance which seems to be the result of his black 

 sacerdotal dress and certain exhibitions of intelli- 

 gence in his ways and general demeanor. Any one 

 who should Avatch his motions for the space of five 

 minutes, either when he is stalldng alone in the 

 field, or when he is careering Avith his fellows 

 around some tall tree in the forest, must be satis- 

 fied that he deserves to be called a grave bird. His 

 voice has nothing to recommend it; it is harsh and 



unmelodious. But iEsop mistook the character of 

 the crow when he represented him as the dupe of 

 the fox, who gained the bit of cheese he carried in 

 his mouth, by inducing him to sing and exhibit his 

 musical powers. Vanity is evidently no part of his 

 character. 



The expedients used for the destruction of the 

 crow in all parts of the world are cruel and shame- 

 ful. The laws of every nation have set a price upon 

 his head. He is hunted with the gun ; he is caught 

 in crow-nets ; he is hoodwinked with bits of paper 

 smeared with birdlime, in which he is caught by 

 nieans of a bait ; he is poisoned with grain steeped 

 in hellebore and strychnine ; the reeds in Avhich he 

 roosts are treacherously set on fire ; he is pmioned 

 by his wings on his back, and made to grap- 

 ple his sympathizing companions who come to 

 his rescue ; and children after receiving lessons of 

 humanity, are taught to regard the crow as an un- 

 worthy subject, when carrying those precepts into 

 pactice. Under every government he is made an 

 outlaw by legislation, and is everywhere held up 

 for public execration. 



As an apology for all this inhumanity, are enu- 

 merated a variety of misdemeanors of which he is 

 guilty._ He pillages the cornfield both in the spring 

 when it is planted, and in the autumn when it is 

 gathered ; he destroys the eggs of innocent birds 

 whom we would like to preserve ; he purloins fruit 

 from the garden, and carries off" young ducks and 

 chickens from the farm-yard. But to make amends 

 for these overt acts, he confers upon man some 

 special benefits. Omnivorous in his habits, he de- 

 stroys in the course of the year, vast myriads of 

 grubs, worms and noxious vermin ; he clears the 

 land of offensive masses of decaying fish and flesh ; 

 he hunts the grassfields and pulls out and devours 

 the cutworms wherever he perceives the evidence 

 of their operations; he destroys mice, hzards, young 

 rats, and the smaller serpents ; lastly, he is a kind 

 of sentinel about the farm, and drives the hawk 

 from its enclosures. 



After weighing the services he performs for man 

 against the mischief he occasions, I cannot think he 

 deserves death. It is during seed-time and harvest 

 thathis depredations are chiefly committed; and 

 so highly are his services appreciated by those who 

 have written of birds, that there is hardly an ornith- 

 ologist who does not plead in his behalf. Audubon 

 remarks, "lean well assure the farmer that were 

 it not for his race, thousands of cornstalks would 

 every year fall prostrate, in consequence of being 

 cut doM-n close to the ground by the destructive 

 grubs which are called cutworms." "VA'aterton says, 

 '•he does but very httle mjury to man during nine 

 or ten months of the year,"— "and for my own 

 part, I should lament his final absence from our 

 meadows and our woods." Wilson, and many oth- 

 ers, also plead for him, and would save his species 

 from extermination. 



But the crow, independently of the services ren- 

 dered by him as a scavenger and a destroyer of ver- 

 min, may be esteemed for certain quahties which 

 are agreeably associated with the charms of nature. 

 It is not the singing birds alone that contribute by 

 their voices to gladden the husbandman and cheer 

 the solitary traveller. The crowing of the cock at 

 break of day, is as joyful a sound, though not so 

 musical, as the voice of the robin, who, in his season, 

 chants liis lays at the same early hour. The caw- 

 ing of the crow is to me one of the most cheerful 



