a set of false teeth? What hummingbird or bluejay ever broke 

 up a golf game by stealing the ball? Recently a pair of the black 

 scoundrels ruined a day's ice fishing in Connecticut by pulling 

 up the fishermen's tip-lines, and robbing the hooks of bait. 



The crow is against everyone. The feeling seems to be mutual. 

 Game keepers, sportsmen, farmers, and the Great Horned Owl 

 denounce him, shoot at him, and attack him the owl, because 

 the crow disturbs his daytime sleeping! 



About the only thing that can fool a crow very long is another 

 crow. When corn is planted in straight rows, the crow finds a 

 kernel, and goes right down the line. When it's cross-planted, he 

 digs only where the marker lines intersect. 



One noted crow hunter tried all his tricks without success. 



"Why not get a line on where their roost is?" I suggested. 



"I know where their roost is. It's in a public park no hunt- 

 ing!" 



The apparent mob tactics of crows are actually strategies. 

 Insolence and clamor are a means of defense. In union there 

 is strength. Said Henry Ward Beecher: "If men had wings 

 and bore black feathers, few of them would be clever enough 

 to be crows." 



Once, on a back country trail, I came on two crows diving 

 and picking at some creature on the ground. One would lunge 

 and retreat, whereupon the other would dive in to attack. This 

 went on for minutes. When I walked closer to the scene, I was 

 astonished to find that the slick pair of gangsters had success- 

 fully engaged and killed a copperhead snake nearly 3 feet long. 



There are nine different corvine species in the United States, 

 six of which are known as crows, and three as ravens. The 

 common crow, a bundle of supreme arrogance, is the "harangue- 

 ster" we most generally know. He stands about 16 inches high, 

 and his gathering is of course called a "cawcuss." 



While the crow undoubtedly prefers stolen food to other 

 kinds, much of his diet actually benefits man's activities. A 

 government biologist has estimated that a family of crows 

 would destroy 38,000 harmful insects during their nesting 

 period. 



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