92 THE COMMON CROW. 



George 0. Benson, of West Belleville, 111., writes: u We used to kill 

 rabbits, salt thein well with arsenic, and tie them on some fence stake 

 with wire; the Crows would get their flesh and take some to their 

 young, and then for years no Crows would alight in our fields." 



Dr. W. C. Brownell, of Plymouth, Mich., wrote in 1891: "As an 

 experiment I soaked 1 pound of common dent corn for several days 

 (two or three, I have forgotten which) in a solution of Hyoscyamus niger 

 (homeopathic tincture) and water. When the corn began to swell, I 

 dried out the excess of liquid and mixed the corn in some fine horse 

 manure and took the whole into a pasture lot near a dead sheep where 



1 knew the Crows came every day. Several days later I found four 

 dead birds in a grove half a mile distant, and the Crows never came 

 back to the sheep." 



Incidents like these show how readily the Crow may be frightened 

 away by the use of poison, even when comparatively few are killed. 

 Several correspondents have stated that sprouting corn may be pro- 

 tected by strewing good corn on the surface of the ground. One person 

 writes from Mount Carmel, Mo. : "Young corn may be effectually pro- 

 tected by feeding the birds boiled corn or soaked corn, sown broadcast, 



2 quarts to 10 acres. The damage to matured crops is inconsiderable 

 in this locality." 



Another writes from Bucks County, Pa. : " Samuel Hart, of Doyles- 

 town, protects his cornfield every spring against Crows by simply scat- 

 tering some loose grain every day around his entire field of 10 acres; 

 every other day will answer, provided the supply is not exhausted. 

 This method has been practiced with entire success for many years, 

 and though Crows are very numerous no corn is pulled up. The entire 

 cost, as estimated by Mr. Hart, is the time required and a total of half 

 a bushel of corn." 



BOUNTIES. 



As previously stated, bounties were resorted to by the earliest set- 

 tlers of the country in their efforts to lessen the numbers of Crows and 

 blackbirds. Apparently the plan was moderately successful. Never- 

 theless, then as now the offer of a bounty for the heads of any undesira- 

 ble species proved a severe tax on the people who paid it, and whenever 

 the abatement of the evil warranted it the bounty was at once withdrawn. 

 Even when the bounty was very small — not more than 1 cent (a half- 

 penny) per head — the sums required to pay the rewards became so great 

 that in many instances the repeal of the laws became necessary, and it 

 was found better to compel each citizen to kill a specified number of 

 blackbirds or Crows each year. 



Dr. Godman, already quoted, states that "about the years 1800-1804 

 the Crows were so vastly accumulated and destructive in the State of 

 Maryland that the Government, to hasten their diminution, received 

 their heads, in payment of taxes, at the price of 3 cents each. The store 



