CROW LIFE 



and some he planted, stamping them into the ground as his 

 imcivilized brethren of other years planted acorns to be eaten 

 on leaner days, and many of which were forgotten, to grow 

 into great oaks to be used as nesting sites by posterity. 

 Having won immunity from labor as a bread-winner, and 

 no longer having to cull his fare from the fields, he usually 

 dined with the barnyard fowls, with whom he had many dis- 

 agreements. But, as if to atone for his crimes, when the 

 garden was being spaded he followed his master and dili- 

 gently cleared the ground of larvae. 



Whatever his faults may be — and they are many — to 

 any one taking the trouble to study the crow, either in cap- 

 tivity or in his native environment, he will prove the most 

 interesting example of his race, an agreeable companion, 

 an ideal home-maker, a thrifty being, a liberal provider, an 

 able defender of his family, a destroyer of harmful insect and 

 animal life, a burier of the dead, a creature of dignity, a keen 

 observer, and the intellectual marvel of the bird world. 



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