Last spring I watched a pair of crows nesting. They wedged 

 a twig nest in a tall tree near our house, and lined its interior 

 with horse hair and grasses. Soon the nest held six eggs of 

 mottled green. 



When the young hatched, both parents worked hard to keep 

 them fed crushed insects, shreds of field mice, downy young 

 songbirds, and choice frogs went into the bill of fare. 



After about three weeks, the doting attitude of the parents 

 changed. Arriving at the nest with a tidbit, the parent refused 

 to yield it, but perched some feet away on a limb, tantalizing the 

 youngsters. One day, after about an hour of this, a young crow 

 got up his nerve and hopped to the parent's limb. He was 

 promptly rewarded with the tidbit. This process went on till 

 all the youngsters had hopped from the nest with a flurry of 

 frightened wings. 



When the nesting and training period is over, crow families 

 gather in small bands which gradually coalesce as colder weather 

 comes. There is now a move toward warmer climates, where 

 crow cities are established. Some of these have been known to 

 harbor as many as 200,000 birds. 



Sportsmen for years have endeavored to popularize crow 

 shooting as a sport with a three-fold purpose: the protection of 

 agriculture, the increase of game and songbirds, and, as no 

 closed season exists to preserve the crow, the development of 

 an excellent off-season gunning sport. 



The crow is wary. Decoys, such as live, stuffed, or mechanical 

 owls, are used to lure him to the blind. A crow call is generally 

 used. There are phonograph records to teach the hunter the 

 best crow jargon. 



Skilled callers can imitate distress, discovery, attention, and 

 rallying calls so effectively that their efforts blacken the sky. 

 They can also reproduce the calls of young crows in nesting 

 season. 



The oddest and certainly the most unorthodox crow caller 

 I've ever seen was a cantankerous old parrot. Dubbed John 

 Silver, the parrot was placed on the lawn one warm summer's 

 day. The family's pet black cat was in the house on a cushion, 



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