86 crow. 



So universal is the hatred to crows, that few Slates, either 

 here or in Europe, have neglected to offer rewards for their 

 destruction. In the United States, they have been repeatedly 

 ranked in our laws with the wolves, the panthers, foxes, and 

 squirrels, and a proportionable premium offered for their heads, 

 to be paid by any justice of the peace to whom they are 

 delivered. On all these accounts, various modes have been 

 invented for capturing them. They have been taken in clap 

 nets, commonly used for taking pigeons ; two or three live 

 crows being previously procured as decoys, or, as they are 

 called, stool-crows. Corn has been steeped in a strong decoc- 

 tion of hellebore, which, when eaten by them, produces giddi- 

 ness, 'and finally it is said, death. Pieces of paper formed 

 into the shape of a hollow cone, besmeared within with bird- 

 lime, and a grain or two of corn dropt on the bottom, have 

 also been adopted. Numbers of these being placed on the 

 ground, where corn has been planted, the crows, attempting 

 to reach the grains, are instantly hoodwinked, fly directly 

 upwards to a great height; but generally descend near the 

 spot whence they rose, and are easily taken. The reeds of 

 their roosting places are sometimes set on fire during a dark 

 night, and the gunners having previously posted themselves 

 around, the crows rise in great uproar, and, amidst the general 

 consternation, by the light of the burnings, hundreds of them 

 are shot down. 



Crows have been employed to catch crows, by the following 



" The farmers of Red Lion Hundred held a meeting at the village of 

 St ( reorge's, in the state of Delaware, on Monday the 6th inst,, to receive 

 proposals of John Deputy, on a plan for banishing or destroying the 

 3. Mr Deputy's plan being heard and considered, was approved, 

 and a committee appointed to contract with him, and to procure the 

 necessary funds to carry the same into effect. Mr Deputy proposes, 

 that for five hundred dollars he will engage to kill or banish the crows 

 from their roost on the Pea Patch, and give security to return the money 

 on failure. 



" The sum of five hundred dollars being thus required, the committee 

 beg leave to address the farmers and others of Newcastle county and 

 elsewhere on the subject.'' 



