184 OUR BACKDOOR NEIGHBORS 



attentions upon the neighbors also until 

 Tommy Jones saw the old fellow after his 

 dinner, and shot him killed in the very act of 

 carrying off a young chicken, there was no 

 question but that Tommy had killed the iden- 

 tical crow that was causing so much mischief. 

 There were still many crows about, and they 

 came around the Naturalist's home as freely 

 as before, but, much to his relief, they did not 

 trouble the baby chicks any more. The fact 

 was thus established that only the one crow in 

 that flock was taking the young chickens, al- 

 though there were others that liked turkey 

 eggs. 



The crow is a very intelligent bird and 

 learns easily. One who watches them closely 

 will soon learn that there is a great difference 

 in their individual peculiarities. Had it not 

 been for the execution of the old sinner which 

 was taking the little chickens, probably all the 

 crows in the neighborhood would have soon 

 learned the same trick. The nests of both hens 

 and turkeys were robbed so persistently that 

 the thirteen guns which had been loaded for 

 the red-tails were trained upon the crows at 

 every opportunity. However, this fact seemed 

 to give them little anxiety, for they were abun- 



