CROWS, MAGPIES, AND JAYS 



CROWS AT A WATER IIOLI; IN ITIIACA, 



Photograph hy Dr. A. A. Allen 

 NIvW YORK 



The crow comes close to being the "great American bird," for it is likely that a thousand 

 people know him personally for every one who ever saw a live eagle. He has waged a successful 

 battle for existence, and there are probably more of his clan here now than there were when the 

 Pilgrims came. Henry Ward Beecher once remarked that if men wore feathers and wings, very 

 few of them would be clever enough to be crows. 



inhabitants view his presence with appre- 

 hension and disHke. From the early set- 

 tlement by Europeans, every man's hand 

 has been against him. Scarecrows erected 

 in ten thousand fields and poisoned grain 

 scattered about have had little effect. 



No town or city ordinance and no State 

 or Federal law protects the crow. Boun- 

 ties have been offered for his head. Neigh- 

 borhood campaigns for destruction of 

 crow nests and "shoots" at their roosting 

 colonies have been organized and enthusi- 

 astically put into execution times without 

 number. 



Despite this widespread, continuous, and 

 almost universal campaign for its destruc- 

 tion, the crow has steadily increased and 

 yearly his numbers are becoming greater. 



In the bird world the crow is one great 

 American success. 



Personally I am very fond of the crow. 

 He is such a shrewd fellow and so tre- 

 mendously successful in the struggle of 

 life that I cannot but admire him. His 

 caw on a frosty morning reaches my ears 

 from across the fields and I know there is 

 life abroad in the land. He is the one 

 Ijird I am pretty sure to see when the snow 

 is deep and the sleet glistens on the trees. 

 Sometimes T have seen him on an ice cake 

 riding down the Hudson. 



In summer I find him tearing rotten 

 logs to pieces and turning over bark and 

 sticks, and I see numbers of crows swarm- 

 ing in fiocks over the newly plowed fields 

 looking for grubs. I enjoy the sight of a 



