Bird Study 



129 



THE CROW 



Teacher's Story 



HOREAU says: "What a perfectly New England 

 sound is this voice of the crow! If you stand still 

 anywhere in the outskirts of the town and listen, this 

 is perhaps the sound which you will be most sure to 

 hear, rising above all sounds of human industry and 

 leading your thoughts to some far-away bay in the 

 woods. The bird sees the white man come and the 

 Indian withdraw, but it withdraws not. Its untamed 

 voice is still heard above the tinkling of the forge. 

 It sees a race pass away, but it passes not away. 

 It remains to remind us of aboriginal nature." 



The crow is probably the most intelligent of all our native birds, it is 

 quick to learn and clever in action, as many a farmer will testify who has 

 tried to keep it out of com fields with various devices, the harmless 

 character of which the crow soon understood perfectly. Of all our birds, 

 this one has the longest list of virtues and of sins, as judged from our 

 standpoint; but we should listen to both sides of the case before we pass 

 judgment. I find with crows, as with people, I like some more than I do 

 others. I do not like at all the cunning old crow which steals the suet I 

 put on the trees in winter for the chickadees and nuthatches; and I have 

 hired a boy with a shotgun to protect the eggs and nestlings of the robins 

 and other birds in my neighborhood from the ravages of one or two cruel 



A pet crow. 



Photo by S A. Lottride. 



