COUVID.K — TlIK CROWS. 245 



mit a very near ftpproacli boinre it will Hy, and even then will not move 

 to a (li.stanee. In all of llie I'nited Stiite.s east of the Missiswipjii it is very 

 abiintlant. In Texas, between Sun Antonio and the Mexican frontier, it is 

 not eonuuon ; liut Mr. Dresser found it very conmujn in tlio nortlieast part 

 of tlie State during the wiiole yctur. 



I'rolialtly no one of our birds, so wliolly worthless for food, has been more 

 hunted and destroyed than tliis sjiccies. In certain j)arts of tlie country it 

 is iield in great aversion l)y tiie farmers, and in some States bounty-laws 

 have been enacted by legislatures to ])romote its destruction. Had not 

 these liirds been posses.sed of an extraordinary intelligence, they must long 

 since have lieen exterminated or driven from a large ])art of the country. 

 In some sections their numbers have been of lute nmch diininislied liy tlie 

 use of stryciinine. During the month of May tlie ('row is very destructive 

 in the cornlield, pulling u]) the grains as soon as they liegin to vegetate, and 

 compelling the farmer to replant perhaps several times. Wilson remarks that 

 in tiie State of Delaware these liirds collect in immense flocks and coiiimit 

 great devastation ujion crops of standing corn. They also occasionally com- 

 mit depredations in the barnyard, robliing hens'-nests of their eggs, and 

 even destroying young chickens. They also destroy the eggs and young of 

 other birds. Tiie mischief they thus do is doubtless very great, and the 

 ground for the jirevalent jirejudice against them is ipiite apparent. Yet it is 

 equally demonstrable that this bird is surpassed, and jirobalily is eijualled, 

 by no other in the vast amount of the benefits conferred niion agricultural- 

 ists. The evil it jierpetrates is very limited, and is confined to but a short 

 period, but during all the time it is resident the Crow is constantly engaged 

 in the destruction of injurious insects and rodent quadrupeds. In the early 

 spring it feeds almost wholly upon the most destructive grubs, and in 

 extensive districts of Massachusetts, where these birds have been largely 

 destroyed, the ravages of the May-bugs and the grasshopjiers in pasture- 

 lands have been a natural conse(|uence of so short-sigiited a jiolicy. 



The persecutions to which the Crow is subjected have developed in them 

 a wariness and a distrust that is foreign to their nature. They can only live 

 liy keejiing on a constant lookout for dangers, and by learning to distinguish 

 the weapons thfit threaten their destruction. As soon as anything is seen 

 that causes alarm, the signal is at once given, and the warning passed from 

 one to another. 



In New Jersey and in PeniLsylvania, during the winter months, the Crows 

 assemble in immense Hocks, and their movements apjiear to be regulated by 

 the guidance of a few chosen leaders. I received from the lips of the late 

 John Cassin, an ornithologist hardly less remarkable for his outdoor obser- 

 vations than for his researches in the closet, only a few days before his 

 death, a very surprising account of the movements of a large army of Crows, 

 witnessed by himself, in the spring of 1868. 



On a Sunday morning in April, when Philadelphia was enveloped in a 



