CROW. 323 
prostrate prisoner, by the same instinctive impulse that urges a drown- 
ing person to grasp at every thing within his reach. Having disen- 
gaged the game from his clutches, the trap is again ready for another 
experiment; and by pinning down each captive, successively, as soon 
as taken, in a short time you will probably have a large flock scream- 
ing above you, in concert with the outrageous prisoners below. Many 
farmers, however, are content with hanging up the skins, or dead 
carcasses, of Crows in their corn-fields, in terrorem; others depend 
altogether on the gun, keeping one of their people supplied with 
ammunition, and constantly on the look out. In hard winters the 
Crows suffer severely ; so that they have been observed to fall down 
in the fields, and on the roads, exhausted with cold and hunger. In 
one of these winters, and during a long-continued, deep snow, more 
than six hundred Crows were shot on the carcass of a dead horse, 
which was placed at a proper distance from the stable, from a hole of 
which the discharges were made. The premiums awarded for these, 
with the price paid for the quills, produced nearly as much as the 
original value of the horse, besides, as the man himself assured me. 
saving feathers sufficient for filling a bed. 
The Crow is easily raised and domesticated; and it is only when 
thus rendered unsuspicious of, and placed on terms of familiarity with 
man, that the true traits of his genius and native disposition fully 
develope themselves. In this state he soon learns to distinguish all 
the members of the family; flies towards the gate, screaming, at the 
approach of a stranger; learns to open the door by alighting on the 
latch; attends regularly at the stated hours of dinner and breakfast, 
which he appears punctually to recollect; is extremely noisy and 
loquacious ; imitates the sounds of various words pretty distinctly ; is 
a great thief and hoarder of curiosities, hiding in holes, corners, and 
crevices, every loose article he can carry off, particularly small pieces 
of metal, corn, bread, and food of all kinds; is fond of the society of 
his master, and will know him even after a long absence, of which the 
following is a remarkable instance, and may be relied on as a fact : —- 
A very worthy gentleman, now [1811] living in the Genesee country. 
but who, at the time alluded to, resided on the Delaware, a few miles 
below Easton, had raised a Crow, with whose tricks and society he 
used frequently to amuse himself. This Crow lived long in the 
family; but at length disappeared, having, as was then supposed, been 
shot by some vagrant gunner, or destroyed by accident. About 
eleven months after this, as the gentleman, one morning, in company 
with several others, was standing on the river shore, a number of 
Crows happening to pass by, one of them left the flock, and flying 
directly towards the company, alighted on the gentleman’s shoulder, 
and began to gabble away with great volubility, as one long absent 
friend naturally enough does on meeting with another. On recover- 
mg from his surprise, the gentleman instantly recognized his old 
acquaintance, and endeavored, by several civil but sly manceuvres, 
to lay hold of him; but the Crow, not altogether relishing quite so 
much familiarity, having now had a taste of the sweets of liberty, 
cautiously eluded all his attempts; and suddenly glancing his eye on 
his distant companions, mounted in the air alter them, soon overtook 
and mingled with then, and was never afterwards seen to return. 
