62 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



needle-like crystals from the shores outward. I have 

 even seen them play at " tickle-y benders," but with tlie 

 advantage over boys in that they can stay up always, 

 even if the ice goes down ; and later, when the creek is 

 frostbound from shore to shore, these birds enjoy wan- 

 dering over it fully as much as I do. They are ever on 

 the hunt for food, and during deep snows their ingenu- 

 ity fails them, and many starve to death. They appear 

 to have grown so over-cautious of late that, rather than 

 incur the merest ghost of possible danger, they will 

 suffer for food in the midst of plenty. Poor crows! 

 Really useful, and to the lover of nature an unfailing 

 source of interest, they have suffered so much and so 

 long that it would not be strange if they often won- 

 dered why, indeed, they were created. I have said they 

 are useful, and I stand by the unqualified assertion. 

 I admit their fondness for corn ; I know that they love 

 watermelons, and are excellent judges of them, always 

 pecking a destructive hole in the choicest of the patch. 

 Wliat of it? The same crows have eaten grubs and 

 young mice for ten months, and have paid thereby bet- 

 ter prices for the corn and melons than ever farmer got 

 from any purchaser. Frighten the crows, if you will, 

 from the cornfields and melon-patches, but do not kill 

 them. This is not the whim of a crank, but the advice 

 of a farmer. 



Poaetquissings is worthy of consideration in yet an- 

 other aspect, during and after a snow-storm. When 

 the creek is frozen, prior to a fall of snow, the outlook 

 is even better ; for the surface of the stream, particu- 

 larly near the river, is then a trackless expanse of glit- 



