NATURAL HISTORY. 



465 



They arc particularly suspicious of any 

 Stealthy movement. It is often easy to 

 get within shot range of crows by acting 

 as if you did not see them and were bound 

 on some other business. With all their 

 cunning, I do not believe thev can tell 

 a gun from a pitchfork, nor gunpowder 

 from sawdust. 



Gilbert King, Howard, R. I. 



In a recent issue of Recreation a cor- 

 respondents asks if the crow can smell gun- 

 powder. I answer in the negative. It 

 is not the smell that crows fear; it is 

 the sight of the gun itself. If you are 

 not carrying a gun you can often walk 

 in under the tree on which crows are 

 sitting, Tben take a gun and see how 

 near you can get to them: They will re- 

 treat long before you are within gun 

 range. To further test this matter, take 

 a piece of wood, a limb or pole, about 4 

 feet long, throw it over your shoulder and 

 see how soon the crow r s will spot you. 

 The crow's fear of a gun has become in- 

 stinct. Young birds taken from the nest 

 often become furious at the sight of a 

 stick in one's hand, while they show' no 

 fear of the person himself. 



A. W. Blain, Jr., Detroit, Mich. 



I see in August Recreation that R. 

 Armstrong is undecided as to whether or 

 not crows can smell gunpowder. No, 

 brother, they can not. What thev smell 

 is the strong nitro primer. Crows are as 

 deaf as posts and blind of both eyes, but 

 they have miraculous noses. I have fre- 

 quently observed ' them take alarm at 200 

 yards when approached with a gun down 

 wind. Use black powder primers and vou 

 will have less trouble. If that is not pos- 

 sible, smear your gun with asafcetida and 

 stalk them up wind under cover of the 

 night. The latter way is the better. 



W. S. Crolly, Hoosic Falls, N. Y. 



I doubt whether crows can smell powder 

 to the extent of being able in that way 

 to detect the approach of a hunter. The 

 rascals were a pest here last year, and a 

 friend and I hunted them 3 days, killing 

 about 25. We ^ot 9. in one dav bv follow- 

 ing a large flock and calling them repeat- 

 edly. 



I saw a white squirrel near here last 

 fall, and got within 6 feet of it. It was 

 perfectly white save for a small black soot 

 on top of its head and a few black hairs 

 at the tip of the tail. Later I saw an- 

 other. Both resembled, in size and ac- 

 tions, the common chipmunk. 



F. C. Muzzy, Bristol, N. H. 



THE SQUIRRELS AND THE CORN. 

 Avoca, Iowa, a town of 2,000 inhabitants, 

 probably contains more squirrels than any 



other town in the country. Just East of it 

 i> a large grove abounding in these beauti- 

 ful creatures, the owner not allowing them 

 to be killed. Our streets are lined with 

 trees, and the residence portion of the town 

 is fairly alive with squirrels. They are 

 never molested and are exceedingly tame, 

 often taking food from one's hand. I have 

 frequently seen them carry off ears of corn. 

 Only a few days ago one carried off, in 

 less than half an hour, a crockful of wal- 

 nuts from my kitchen. Last summer I 

 noticed the ground under a cottonwood 

 tree near my house was covered with 

 freshly fallen leaves. This proved to be 

 the work of squirrels. On the stem of each 

 cut leaf was a ^welling caused by a deposit 

 of eggs of some insect. The squirrels had 

 eaten the eggs from each leaf before drop- 

 ping it. Dr. C. W. Hardman, Avoca, la. 



In the fall of 1897, I was hunting near 

 Carthage, N. Y. While in a piece of 

 maplewoods near a field of corn, I saw 

 something moving about 30 feet from the 

 ground in one of the trees. On close obser- 

 vation I saw it was an ear of corn and that 

 some animal was trying to pull it into a 

 hole. After waiting a few minutes I fired 

 direct at the ear of corn. It fell to the 

 ground, and out of the hole popped a grey 

 squirrel, which ran to the top of the tree. 

 I do not know why he should have tried to 

 carry a whole ear of corn into the hole, as 

 he was so near the field he could have 

 taken a kernel at a time and soon have 

 had a supply sufficient for his need. 



H. Sylvester, Lima, N. Y. 



F. E. Williams, of Spring Valley, Minn., 

 tells in Recreation about grey squirrels 

 carrying corn from farmers' cribs and hid- 

 ing it until they have a bushel or more 

 stored away. I have made a close studv 

 of the habits of squirrels, both wild and 

 tame, and never until last spring saw one 

 carry an ear of corn. In March I observed 

 a grey squirrel come out of a grove and 

 cross an open field to a corn crib. In a 

 few minutes he returned, carrying an ear 

 of corn, holding it by setting the front 

 lower teeth into the pith and his upper 

 teeth in_ the edge of the cob. I do not 

 think this is a common habit ; anyway, it 

 was the first case I ever noticed. 



W. R. Felton, Coffeyville, Kan. 



I note, in August Recreation, that you 

 question the statement of F. E. Williams. 

 Spring Valley, Minn., in regard to grey 

 squirrels carrying off whole ears of corn. 

 In the early part of last June I went into 

 a field to see a farmer who was plowing, 

 about 40 rods from a barn, and between it 

 and an oak grove. I saw a squirrel going 

 across the plowed land toward the barn. 

 In a few minutes he came back with a 



