CROW. 8 1 



beauty of plumage, nor excellence of flesh, nor civility of 

 manners, to recommend him ; on the contrary, he is branded 

 as a thief and a plunderer — a kind of black-coated vagabond, 

 who hovers over the fields of the industrious, fattening on 

 their labours, and, by his voracity, often blasting their expec- 

 tations. Hated as he is by the farmer, watched and persecuted 

 by almost every bearer of a gun, Avho all triumph in his 

 destruction, had not Heaven bestowed on him intelligence 

 and sagacity far beyond common, there is reason to believe 

 that the whole tribe (in these parts at least) would long ago 

 have ceased to exist. 



The crow is a constant attendant on agriculture, and a 

 general inhabitant of the cultivated parts of North America. 

 In the interior of the forest he is more rare, unless during the 

 season of breeding. He is particularly attached to low flat 

 corn countries, lying in the neighbourhood of the sea, or of 

 large rivers ; and more numerous in the northern than 

 southern states, where vultures abound, with whom the crows 

 are unable to contend. A strong antipathy, it is also said, 

 prevails between the crow and the raven, insomuch, that 

 where the latter is numerous, the former rarely resides. Many 

 of the first settlers of the Gennesee country have informed 

 me, that, for a long time, ravens were numerous with them, 

 but no crows, and even now the latter are seldom observed in 

 that country. In travelling from Nashville to Natchez, a 



I cannot, nevertheless, reconcile Wilson's account of the difference of 

 habits and cry to those of Britain and Europe. It seems a species more 

 intermediate between the common rook, C. frugilegus, and the G corone ; 

 their gregarious habits, and feeding so much on grain, are quite at vari- 

 ance with the carrion crow ; Wilson's account of the crow roost on the 

 Delaware is so different, that, as far as habit is concerned, it is impos- 

 sible to refer them to one ; and though some allowance might be made 

 for the diversity of habit in the two countries, I do not see in what 

 manner the cry of the bird should be so distinctly affected as to be 

 remarked by nearly all authors who have mentioned them. 



Burns's line in the " Cottar's Saturday Night " alludes certainly to the 

 common rook, and he, I am sure, knew the difference between a crow 

 and a corbie. — Ed. 



VOL. II. F 



