BULLETIN OF 

 MASSACHUSETTS BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



THE CROW IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



By E. H. FoRBDSH, Ornithologist to the Board. 



Birds of the crow family have had a peculiar interest for the 

 farmer for many years, both iu the old world and in the new. 

 Unfortunately for the American crow {Corvus americamis), it has 

 come to have a bad name among men. Therefore, crows are pro- 

 scribed by law, every man's hand is against them ; mercilessly 

 hunted, they are perforce wanderers on the face of the earth. 



However much the enemies of the crow may inveigh against it, 

 they must admit that it is a creature of superior intelligence. Its 

 grain-loving proclivities, together with its sagacity and cunning, 

 make it a most annoying bird to tlie farmer. Considerable inge- 

 nuity is required to circumvent the crow. Yet it is not naturally 

 a supremely cautious or suspicious bird. Primarily bold and fear- 

 less, it acquires caution by force of necessity. On the Pacific coast, 

 especially during the first settlement of the country, crows were 

 extremely bold and unsuspicious, and this is true to-day in locali- 

 ties remote from civilization. Mr. H. W. Henshaw, in the " Youths' 

 Companion," speaks of the boldness of the crows of the Pacific 

 coast in robbing hogs, the crows alighting on the head of the hog 

 and plucking clams from its very mouth. The writer has been in- 

 formed by old settlers of what was then Washington Territory that 

 they have seen crows so tame and so eager in their search for food 

 that they have even perched upon the backs of squaws engaged in 

 digging clams, and attempted to snatch the clams from under the 

 hands of the diggers. The writer has frequently seen the north- 

 western crows (Corvus caurinufi) so tame that, while engaged in 

 searching for food, they would walk about on the sand within a 

 few feet of the observer. Yet these same crows soon learn the 

 significance of the sound of a gun, and the shooting of a few of 

 their number by gunners will render the rest more wary. In the 

 east crows have learned by association and experience to beware 

 of the approach of man, and are considered as among the most 

 difficult of all birds to approach. This wariness is only overcome 



