CUllVULE — THE cK(nvs. 245 



mit a very nonr approarli bot'ore it will Hy, and even then will not move 

 to a distance. In all of tlie I'nited States east of the Mississij)j»i it is very 

 ahiindant. In Texas, between San Antonio and the Mexican frontier, it is 

 not eonimon ; hut Mr. J)resser found it very common in the northeast j)art 

 of tlie State during the whole year. 



Proltahly no one of our l)irds, so wholly worthless for food, has been more 

 hunted and destroyed than this species. In certain i)arts of tlie country it 

 is lield in Ljreat aversion l)y the farmers, and in some States Ijounty-laws 

 have lieen enacted by legislatures to promote its destruction. Had not 

 these liirds been ])ossessed of an extraordinary intelligence, they must long 

 since have lieen exterminated or driven from a large )»art of the country. 

 In some sections their nundjers have been of late nmcli diminished bv tlie 

 use of strychnine. During the month of May the Crow is very destructive 

 in the cornfield, pulling up the grains as soon as they begin to vegetaie, and 

 comj)elling the farmer to replant i)erhaps seveml times. AVilson remarks tliat 

 in tlie State of Delaware these birds collect in immense Hocks and commit 

 great devastation upon crops of standing corn. They also occasioimlly com- 

 mit dei)redations in the barnyard, robbing hens'-nests of their eggs, and 

 even destroying young chickens. They also destroy the eggs and young of 

 other birds. The mischief they thus do is doubtless very great, and the 

 ground for the ]>revalent prejudice against them is (piite apparent. Yet it is 

 equally demonstmble that this bird is sur]»assed, and probably is equalled, 

 by no other in the vast amount of the benefits conferred ujhju agricultural- 

 ists. The evil it perpetrates is very limited, and is confined to but a sh(»rt 

 period, but during all the time it is resident the Crow is constantly engaged 

 in the destruction of injurious insects and rodent quadrupeds. In the early 

 spring it feeds almost wholly upon the most destructive grubs, and in 

 extensive districts of MavSsachusetts, where these birds have been largely 

 destroyed, the ravages of the ^lay-bugs and the grasshoppers in pasture- 

 lands have been a natural conseiiuence of so short-sighted a policy. 



The persecutions to wdiich the Crow is subjected have developed in them 

 a wariness and a distrust that is foreign to their nature. They can only li\ e 

 by keeping on a constant lookout for dangers, and by learning to distinguish 

 the weapons that threaten tlieir destruction. As soon as anything is seen 

 that causes alarm, the signal is at once given, and the w^arning passed from 

 one to another. 



In New Jersey and in Pennsylvania, during the winter months, the Crows 

 assenJde in immense Hocks, and their movements appear to be regulated by 

 the guidance of a few chosen leaders. I received from the lips of the late 

 John Cassin, an ornithologist hardly less remarkable for his outdoor obser- 

 vations than for his researches in the closet, only a few days before his 

 death, a very surprising account of the movements of a large army of Crow^ s, 

 witnessed by himself, in the spring of 1868. 



On a Sunday morning in April, wiien Philadelphia was enveloped in a 



