NATURAL HISTORY. 



When a bird or a wild animal is killed, that is the end of it. If photographed, it may still live and 

 its educational and scientific value is multiplied indefinitely. 



KILL THE CROWS. . 



The crow has outlived his usefulness. 

 As a scavenger he is all right when there 

 are but a few of him, but when there are 

 countless thousands of crows and only oc- 

 casionally a dead critter to be devoured, 

 some crows must go hungry or else steal 

 from the farmer and the State. 



Only a few years ago we had plenty of 

 prairie chickens about our city, but to-day 

 they are almost extinct. I have a large 

 acquaintance among the farmers, and they 

 tell me, without a single exception, that there 

 are no chickens this year ; that last year 

 there were a few, but the crows killed all 

 the young, and this year there are not even 

 the old birds. 



I have at the same time seen the crows 

 of this end of the State multiply tenfold, 

 and in the spring, when there are young 

 birds to be had for the hunting and taking, 

 Mr. and Mrs. Crow subsist on young and 

 tender nestlings and feed their own young 

 with the same delicacies. 



One day last spring I saw crows flying 

 over my place to and from a heavy pine 

 grove toward some tall oak timber, half a 

 mile distant. Every crow going toward 

 the oak timber had something in its bill, 

 while no crow going toward the pine trees 

 was carrying anything. To learn posi- 

 tively what was going on I got my gun 

 and dropped 2 crows. They were carrying 

 young blackbirds to the oak timber. I 

 dare say some of these crows were carry- 

 ing these young blackbirds several miles 

 across country to their own nestlings 

 Many of the young blackbirds were as large 

 as newly hatched chickens. 



If any man doubts that the crows of 

 Northern Illinois are to be seen in count- 

 less thousands let him come here in the 

 winter, and I can show him a sight such 

 as he never dreamed of. He can shoot his 

 fill with never a fear of being called a game 

 hog. It is almost like shooting into <t 

 swarm of mosquitoes. t\ lot fall, but the 

 gap is closed and there are so many 

 crows to kill that it seems almost impossi- 

 ble to make even an impression on them. 

 The next evening, however, if you go back 

 to the same timber you will see that you 

 have made an impression, but only in this 

 way; instead of coming in to that particular 

 bunch of timber the crows will roost in 

 some second growth half a mile or more 

 away. No danger of exterminating them ; 

 they are too foxy for that. 



I received a letter some time ago from 

 Mr. Geo. O, Greene, of Princeton, 111., in 



which he says similar conditions exist 

 as far south as the Arkansas river 

 and may extend farther, but that he has 

 traveled that far and knows whereof he 

 speaks. He says that a few years ago as 

 he traveled over the Hannibal & St. Jo, and 

 the Santa Fe railroads, it was no uncom- 

 mon sight to see prairie chickens all alon« 

 the railroad tracks, but to-day crows are 

 everywhere instead, and one can hardly go 

 a_ mile without seeing one. Our game 

 birds are gone and the black pirates are left 

 to rob every bird's nest they find. 



At the time when the man with the sun 

 is not allowed to hunt, Mr. Crow is getting 

 in his work. He rakes in the eggs of out- 

 game and insectivorous birds as they are 

 found, and later takes the young. He has 

 exterminated all these birds in some locali- 

 ties and now is helping himself to the farm- 

 er's poultry. 



The farmers of this end of the State tried 

 last winter to pass a law giving a bounty 

 of 10 cents on crows' heads, but their ad- 

 vising counselsaid it could not be done le- 

 gally as it must be a State law. This being 

 the case we cannot have such a law until 

 the Legislature sits in December, 1906. Il 

 is too bad that we have to wait so long, but 

 in the meantime the crow will go on de- 

 vastating this beautiful State and will teach 

 the people that something must be done. 



I am against the . crow, and hope mj 

 brother sportsmen will join me in a crusade 

 against him. Even laws, well enforced, 

 will do no good if this black pirate is al- 

 lowed to go on in his own way. We must 

 attack him from all quarters at once and 

 not let up until he is decidedly fewer in 

 numbers. 



The sportsmen of this State paid intc 

 the State Treasurer's hands for licenses to 

 hunt game in the State during the year 

 ending June 1, $120,000, and of that amount 

 there was, June 1, $58,000 to the credit of 

 this fund in the treasury. Mr. A. J. Love- 

 joy, who so ably filled the position of State 

 Game Commissioner, had plans laid to use 

 the money for furthering the interests of 

 the sportsmen of the State. He proposed 

 to have a State reservation for propagating 

 game birds and to place them all over the 

 State wherever they would be properly 

 cared for. Unfortunately Mr. Lovejoy let 

 the politicians know he had a balance to the 

 good and how he wished to use it, and our 

 law makers thought otherwise; at least, he 

 was requested by Governor Yates to hand in 

 his resignation, and now the matter is out 

 of the warden's hands entirely. 



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