104 



THE CARRION, OR COMMON CROW. 



The familiarity and audacity of the Crows in some parts of the East 

 w astonishing. They frequent the courts of houses belonging to the 

 Europeans ; and, as the servants are carrying in dinner, will alight on 

 the dishes, and fly away with the meat, if not driven off by persona 

 who attend with sticks for that purpose. 



In some parts of North America they are extremely numerous, and 

 destroy the new-sown maize by pulling it out of the ground and 

 devouring it. The ripening plants they also injure, by picking holea 

 in the leaves which surround the ears, and thus exposing them to cor 

 ruption by letting in the rain. The inhabitants of Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey allowed a reward of three-pence or four-pence a-head foi 

 destroying these birds ; but the law was soon repealed, on account of 

 the expense which it brought upon the public treasury. 



There are at present more of these birds bred in England than in 

 any other country of Europe. In the reign of Henry the Eighth, Crowa 

 had become so numerous, and were thought so prejudicial to the 

 farmer, that they were considered an evil worthy of parliamentary 

 redress; and an act was passed for their destruction, in which also 

 Rooks and Choughs were included. Every hamlet was ordered to 

 destroy a certain number of Crows' nest for ten successive years ; and 

 the inhabitants were compelled to assemble at stated times during that 

 period, in order to consult on the most proper and effectual means of 

 extirpating them. 



The following are modes adopted in some countries for catching 

 these birds-: A Crow is fastened alive on its back firmly to the 

 ground, by means of a brace on each side, at the base of the wings. 

 In this painful position the animal struggles and screams ; the rest of 

 its species flock to its cries from all quarters, with the intention, prob- 

 ably, of affording relief. But the prisoner, to extricate himself, grasp- 

 ing at every thing within reach, seizes with his bill and claws, which 

 are left at liberty, all that come near him, and thus delivers them a 

 prey to the bird-catcher. Crows are also caught by cones of paper 

 baited with raw flesh ; as the Crow introduces his head to devour the 

 bait, which is near the bottom, the paper, being besmeared with bird- 

 lime, sticks to the feathers of the neck, and he remains hooded. 

 Unable to get rid of this bandage, which entirely covers his eyes, the 

 Crow rises almost perpendicularly into the air, the better to avoid 

 striking against any object ; till, quite exhausted, he sinks down near 

 the spot from which he mounted. 



If a Crow be put into a cage, and exposed in the fields, his calla 

 generally attract the attention of others that are in the neighborhood, 

 which flock round their imprisoned companion. This plan is some- 

 times adopted in order to get these birds within gun-shot ; for, however 

 shy they may otherwise be, their care is said in this case to be so much 

 occupied on their friend, as to render them almost heedless of the gun- 

 ner's approach. 



Willughby states, that this bird is capable of being taught to articu- 

 late words with considerable distinctness. By the ancients it waa 

 esteemed a bird of bad omen. The Crow is so rare in Sweden, that Lin- 

 naeus speak of it as a bird that he never knew killed in that country 

 but once 



