168 



THE OOLOGIST 



meadows are still covered with snow 

 and ice. When a boy I remember the 

 Crow was considered the harbinger 

 of spring here, that is they were the 

 first to arrive, and you would hear 

 some one say 'the winter has broke, 

 the Crows have come." But now we 

 have a still earlier arrival in the 

 Horned Lark, which comes about the 

 middle of February. But to return to 

 March 20th and the two Crows. Down 

 back off and to the west of my build- 

 ings there is a swale or meadow. The 

 land is nearly flat and overflows dur- 

 ing the winter season but not deeply 

 and freezes, so that when the snow 

 thaws in the spring this sheet of ice 

 is one of the last to go. I had occa- 

 sion to go in the direction of this ice 

 field this March day. My attention was 

 attracted to an object that was jump- 

 ing around and tumbling over itself 

 on the ice. I could not make out what 

 it was. There appeared to be only one 

 of the thing and though it was caus- 

 ing a whole lot of discussion among 

 the numerous Crows assembled there 

 about (who were merely hooping 

 them on I suppose) I did not at first 

 think it was Crows but some animal 

 whom the crows were mobing. On 

 nearer approach the assembled Crows 

 flew away still discussing the fight 

 and calling back encouragement to 

 their favorite, or it might have been 

 a warning of a man coming. But 

 whatever it was it had no affect on 

 the object which now disclosed itself 

 as two Crows locked one to the other, 

 who were by this time so nearly "all 

 in" that either they could not or 

 would not let go. Their claws locked 

 to one another in a death grapple and 

 each doing what execution they could 

 with their bills, squarking and pant- 

 ing. There was a rest between bouts, 

 when they would fall over on the ice, 

 but always locked together. Then as 

 the breath of life would return to their 



bodies, now much pummiled and 

 bloody, up at it again, bill to bill, 

 never one breaking away or giving in, 

 in the least. Thus it went on while I 

 watched until I thought best to inter- 

 vene and stop tlie bloody war. I never 

 knew what caused the fight, though 

 probably some "fair lady" of color. 

 But whatever the cause I feel sure 

 there would have been one dead Crow 

 and the other would have died though 

 the victor, from exhaustion and star- 

 vation behind unable to break their 

 death hold of the other, had I not 

 happened upon the scene as I did. 



Oftentimes I have felt I had reason 

 to cuss them long and hard for des- 

 troying my crops, but thieves are and 

 must be, to satisfy those five hungry 

 tummies of their offspring. Yet much 

 good they do in the early spring and 

 the fall when many and many a bug 

 and beetle go to furnish a dinner for 

 a flock of Crows. It is as chicken 

 thieves that their slyness shows up 

 the best. At one time I had a bad at- 

 tack of that insidious disease, "hen 

 fever." Now there is no known help 

 for this ailment, it must run its course 

 and the patient either dies happy or 

 lives to regret. Well, I bought incu- 

 bators, brooders and all the fixings 

 only asked the old hen to lay and 1 

 would do the rest. So it came abouc 

 that there were some hundreds of 

 chickens on the place. They had 

 colony houses and a wide free range 

 and were doing fine. Then one day 

 when they were just under broiler age 

 and size there commenced to be a 

 shortage noted in the count. A watch 

 was set and it was found the trouble 

 could be rightly layed to the Crows. 

 It was found that the Crow instead of 

 diving down upon the chickens as a 

 hawk does and scaring all but the un- 

 lucky victim so that they would run 

 to Mother (the brooder) would 

 simply fly down into the grass a little 



