A Talking Crow. 



259 



sound rising pure and serene, as if a spirit 

 from some remote height were slowly chant- 

 ing a divine accompaniment. This song 

 appeals to the sentiment of the beautiful 

 in me, and suggests a serene religious beati- 

 tude as no other sound in nature does. It 

 is perhaps more of an evening than a morn- 

 ing hymn, though I hear it at all hours of 

 the day. It is very simple, and I can hardly 

 tell the secret of its charm. ' O spheral. 



spheral!' he seems to say; 'O holy, holy!' 

 * * * interspersed with the finest trills 

 and the most delicate preludes. It is not 

 a proud, gorgeous strain, like the tanager's 

 or the grosbeak's; suggests no passion or 

 emotion — nothing personal — but seems to 

 be the voice of that calm sweet solemnity 

 one attains to in his best moments. It real- 

 izes a peace and a deep solemn joy that 

 only the finest souls may know." 



Florence A. Merriam. 



A TALKING CROW. 



I ONCE had a neighbor who owned a 

 talking crow. The bird had been 

 taken from its nest when very young, and 

 was confined in a cage, receiving much at- 

 tention from the various members of the 

 household. His owner's name was Arthur 

 Watson, and Mrs. Watson, standing one 

 day in the door calling to her husband at 

 dinner time, was much surprised to hear 

 Dick repeat " A-r-t-h-u-r," imitating very 

 closely her prolonged tone and rising in- 

 flection. After this the bird received more 

 attention than ever, and rapidly learned to 

 say words and sentences. He became so 

 tame that he was finally released from his 

 cage and flew about the village at will, mak- 

 ing friends with everybody. His favorite 

 mode of salutation was to fly down by the 

 side, or in front of the person he wished to 

 address, screaming out in a shrill falsetto, 

 "Old black cro-ow has come!" dwelling 

 upon the word crow with a prolonged cres- 

 cendo that gave the sentence a very pecu- 

 liar effect. Sometimes he would simply 

 throw back his head and say " Hello, Ed," 

 in quick sharp tones, repeating it until he 

 received an answering " Hello," when he 

 would fly away apparently satisfied. Stran- 

 gers were frequently startled by his abrupt 

 address. On one occasion a neighbor was 

 having his house repainted, and Dick flew 

 over early in the morning to see what was 



going on. One of the painters was a stran- 

 ger in the neighborhood. He was standing 

 on the ladder, thirty feet from the ground,, 

 when he heard the rushing of wings as Dick 

 flew and alighted on the edge of the roof, 

 screaming out his favorite sentence, "Old 

 black cro-ow has come !" The perplexed 

 wielder of the brush was so frightened that 

 it was with difficulty he kept from falling. 



The boys taught this wise bird to play 

 hide-and-seek with them, and in the winter 

 he would go with them coasting. He was 

 very happy when he could join the children 

 in any of their sports. Dick was very mis- 

 chievous withal, and would steal spoons 

 and other small shining objects, hiding^ 

 them under the barn or in any out-of-the- 

 way place that pleased his fancy. He espe- 

 cially delighted in pulling up seedlings that 

 had been transplanted, and in taking clothes 

 pins off the line, indulging in frantic glee 

 when the garments fell to the ground. 



It is said that a crow will learn to talk 

 if a small cord under the tongue be cut: 

 but Mr. Watson always claimed that Dick's 

 vocal powers were a complete surprise to 

 every member of the family, and had not 

 been in the least facilitated by operation or 

 special instruction. 



Dick shared the fate of most pets of that 

 description, and was accidentally shot. 



Mary E. Shults. 



