254 Transactions of the American Institute. 



certain diseases of the eye to which they are predisposed. As 

 this is designed to be a practical analysis of the character of the 

 crow, with a view to determining a mooted question, whether it is 

 absolutely such a foe as represented, a vast amount of curious 

 information relating to the developments of its intelligence under an 

 orderly system of training, must be passed over. It is appropriate to 

 observe, however, in this connection, their lingual acquirements are 

 represented on reliable testimony to surpass the monosyllable accom- 

 plishments of the best educated parrots. Personal observations on 

 the habits of the subject of this memoir on four continents justifies 

 the remark that the crow exhibits the same essential traits in all coun- 

 tries. There may be slight modifications in the shape of the bill or 

 gome imaginary shadings of plumage, due to variations of tempera- 

 ture and other local circumstances, where successive generations have 

 flourished undisturbed beyond the approach of enemies. By a deplor- 

 able misapprehension of the true character of crows and undervaluing 

 their usefulness on cultivated lands, a warfare has been waged against 

 them, which has been transmitted in our time from father to son, quite 

 difficult to overcome, even by appeals to common sense, supported by 

 researches and the testimony of science. Several States have enacted 

 laws for encouraging their extermination. Bounties are even now paid 

 annually from public treasuries for their heads. The result of such 

 ignorance and worse policy is obvious ; they are rapidly disappearing. 

 With all their instinctive ingenuity and industrious efforts, the poor 

 persecuted crows, with posted sentinels in the tree-tops to give notice 

 of the approach of their most dreaded foe, civilized Christian man, 

 can scarcely gather food enough for sustaining life on the borders of 

 his domains. By and by they will be spoken of as rare birds ; and 

 yet God created them and endowed them with special qualifications 

 for the performance of acts in accordance with that scheme of univer- 

 sal good which is discoverable in all the beneficent arrangements of a 

 divine Providence, and which, if rightly understood and appreciated 

 by farmers, would be hailed with grateful admiration. Crows, undis- 

 turbed, would keep down an excessive increase of worms, sings, 

 noxious bugs, and depredating gnawers and nibblers at the roots of 

 succulent radicals, tender plants, shrubbery, fruit, and trees, were 

 they not wickedly persecuted in their legitimate pursuits. The crow's 

 affection for its young, and the touching fidelity of the parents to each 

 other when once mated, teaches a lesson of moral sentiment far sur- 

 passing the poetic attachment of turtle doves, that might be imitated 

 by those claiming superior attributes in the false pursuit of happiness. 



