No. 4.] THE CliOW IN MASSACHUSETTS. 275 



The Crow iiv Massachusetts. 



BY MK. E. H. FOKBDSII, OimiTIIOLOGIST TO TlIK I'.OAIM). 



Birds of the crow fatiiily have had a peculiar interest for 

 the farmer for many years, both in the old world and in the 

 new. Unfortunately for the American crow ( Corvtis ameri- 

 canus), it has come to have a bad name among men. There- 

 fore, crows are proscribed by law, every man's hand is 

 against them ; mercilessly hunted, they are perforce wander- 

 ers 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 the 

 farmer. Considerable ingenuity is required to circumvent 

 the crow. Yet it is not naturally a supremely cautious or 

 suspicious bird. Primarily bold and fearless, it acquires 

 caution by force of necessity. On the Pacific coast, es- 

 pecially during the first settlement of the country, crows 

 were extremely bold and unsus[)icious, and this is true to- 

 day in localities remote from civilization. Mr. H. W. Hen- 

 shaw, in the "Youth's 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 informed 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 caurinus) 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 



