408 LIFE HISTORIES OP NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



Mr. Manly Hardy writes me: "I have often seen Crows, near low tide, 

 dive from a pier, striking the water as a Swallow does, and rise with something 

 shining in their bills. I have seen this many times in Maine, and a friend tells 

 me that he has been near enough to see that they had seized small fish. While 

 waiting for a train I saw one dive in this way and take up some large, white 

 substance; he carried it across the stream and left it on the railroad track; I 

 crossed and found it to be a large bunch of cotton waste; as it was after the 

 time for nesting, he must have mistaken it for food, and finding his mistake 

 abandoned it. Some seasons they destroy quantities of seed potatoes by dig- 

 ging them up soon after planting; they also take new potatoes from the hills, 

 and I have seen them pick beans from the pods at Great Deer Island, Maine. 

 This could not have been for want of food, as an abundance of shellfish could 

 be procured in the vicinity. I have also known a Crow to come into the limits 

 of Bangor, Maine, in a thickly settled neighborhood, and take well-grown robins 

 out of a nest built under the eaves of a house; it would come early in the 

 morning, swooping down like a Hawk, making no noise, taking its victim with- 

 out alighting. In order to obtain the meat of the great sea snails and whelks 

 along the seashore here, they carry them high into the air and let them fall on 

 the ledges beneath. While in Colorado, in 1891, I saw Crows on the top of 

 Pike's Peak, on October 8, at an altitude of 14,147 feet." 



It is well known that Crows are exceedingly intelligent, and quite a variety 

 of their cunning performances have found their way into print, a few of which 

 I mention. 



A gentleman from Brighton, New York, under date of September 4, 1882, 

 writes: "The droll antics of a pet Crow, owned by a neighbor, have amused 

 me not a little, and the following exhibition of its intelligence seems deserving 

 of record. A few days since 'Jim' was given some dry crusts of bread for his 

 breakfast. After making several unsuccessful attempts to devour them, he seized 

 one in his beak and hopped upon a chair, then upon the sink, and, finding a 

 basin containing some water, dipped the crust into the water until softened, then 

 removing it, ate it, and jumped down and got the other piece, and, after softening 

 it as before, finished his meal." 1 



Mr. Abbott M. Frazar states: "A tame Crow (Corvus americanus) in my 

 possession has repeatedly amused me by the novel method he adopts to rid him- 

 self of parasites. For this purpose he deliberately takes his stand upon an ant 

 mound and permits the ants to crawl over him and carry away the troublesome 

 vermin. The operation seems mutually agreeable to all parties, the ants quickly 

 seizing upon the parasites and bearing them away. I have also noticed the 

 same habit in another tame Crow that I formerly had in my possession." 2 



Dr. Ralph tells me that he knew of a case where a pet Crow was teased by 

 letting it peck at a pocketknife and then rapidly withdrawing it. The bird 

 shortly became tired of this, and the next time, instead of trying to catch the 



1 Forest and Stream, September 7, 1882. 



2 Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. I, 1876, p. 76. 



