THE AMERICAN CROW. 



[Corvus americanus) 



The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay, 

 And from the wood-top calls the Crow through all the gloomy day. 



— William Cullen Bryant, "The Death of the Flowers." 



It is quite certain that no bird is bet- 

 ter known and probably few birds are 

 more disliked than the American Crow. 

 A few bad traits such as pulling and 

 eating- sprouting corn, and devouring 

 the eggs and young of poultry, has 

 made it an unmitigated nuisance in the 

 mind of the agriculturist. Man is the 

 Crow's sworn enemy, but, in the words 

 of Dr. Dawson, the Crow more than 

 any other bird "has successfully 

 matched his wits against those of man, 

 and his frequent easy victories and con- 

 sequent boastings are responsible in 

 large measure for the unsavory reputa- 

 tion in which he is held." Without 

 doubt the Crow is one of the smartest 

 birds in our avian fauna. 'The proper 

 study of Crow-kind is man," and the 

 Crow without studying by candle light 

 has been able to master the problem. 

 In spite of centuries of severe persecu- 

 tion it has held its own, and its kind 

 has constantly increased. It has the 

 valuable faculty of adaptability, and has 

 been able to circumvent every barrier 

 and fit its mode of living to every new 

 condition imposed by man. The Crow 

 has been placed under the ban of the 

 law, in some localities, and a value has 

 been placed upon its head. But what 

 does the Crow care? It seems to enjoy 

 being an outlaw and cunningly bests 

 the one who tries to earn the bounty. 

 Mr. Chapman says: *'As for fear, I 

 doubt if he knows what it means; he 

 has far too much confidence in his un- 

 doubted ability to escape his human 

 persecutors. He laughs at their 

 attempts to entrap him; his insolent 

 assurance is admirable." The Crows 

 migrate during the light of day and 

 they nearly always perch where they 



may be readily seen and see. They 

 know a gun and when one appears they 

 depart. Both the psychology and the 

 philology of the Crows are yet to be 

 written. While the foundation of the 

 Crows' language consists of a single 

 expressive syllable, their voice tone 

 may be so modified as to indicate the 

 impulses or thoughts which are emanat- 

 ing from their active little brains. 



Tlie range of this notorious mischief- 

 maker extends from the Fur Countries 

 southward to Mexico and in many 

 localities from the northern United 

 States southward, we have the Crows 

 with us always. The majority of the 

 Crows are migratory and move south- 

 ward in the fall. As they obtain their 

 food from the ground, the principal ob- 

 ject of their southward journey is to find 

 localities where the surface is free from 

 snow, at least most of the time. When 

 migrating they travel in flocks. During 

 the fall and winter they are gregarious 

 and form quite large colonies called 

 "roosts." It has been estimated that 

 some of these ''roosts" contain one hun- 

 dred thousand or more Crows. 



Mr. Samuel N. Rhoods has so vividly 

 described one of these "roosts" that we 

 quote from; his paper, published in the 

 American Naturalist in 1886. He says: 

 "The course adopted in assembling to 

 and departing from the chosen spot is 

 uniform everywhere. About an hour 

 before sunset stragglers begin to appear, 

 reconnoitering, as it were, to see that the 

 coast is clear, and returning whence they 

 came, as if to inform the main body of 

 the result. In the course of half an hour 

 the flocks begin to arrive in broken lines 

 and detachments from all quarters, and, 

 if the evening be calm, their earthward 



