526 Causes of Forest Rotation. | [June, 
on the ground beside a chip, which chip, as he alights, he will so 
quickly and adroitly turn over with the other foot as to cover out 
of sight the article he has taken. He will then take a few steps 
-about the chip with his toes all properly radiating, purposely to 
show you that he does not hold the missing article in his claw. 
‘Unless you are acquainted with his tricks you would concede 
that he had not taken your thimble, so adroitly, is the trick per- 
formed. Then he is ready for some new mischief. Off he goes 
to the chicken-yard where a hen and her chicks are scratching 
for bugs. He alights plump into their midst. The little chicks 
scream and scamper for shelter. The old hen, with her feathers 
all awry, dashes at him as if she would tear him into strings, but 
just as she gets in striking distance the crow opens his mouth 
| and caws loudly right into her face. She stops abruptly, hesi- 
= tates and slowly backs off. Then comes the cock of the y 
= likea charge of cavalry, to drive the intruder from his premises; 
z but as he too gets in striking distance, the crow opens his mouth 
about three inches wide and caws so loud, right into the cock's 
= face, that he can be heard a quarter of a mile. The cock too 
stops suddenly, and his look of surprise and amazement is most 
amusing. His wrothy feathers gradually smooth down and he 
hc takes a few steps cautiously backward, then whirls and runs back 
__._under the rose-bush and there tells the hens how the crow acte 
oo like Irving’s Knickerbocker soldiers who were sent up the Hud- 
son to capture a fort, and who had nose, thumb and fingers all 
wiggled at them at once over the wall by the garrison, which was 
such a strange and unexpected proceeding that they hastened 
=~ back to headquarters to report what had taken place. 
ck I had a pet crow two years ago that cut so many tricks in his 
: way that a neighbor shot him one morning. Afterward, in clean- 
ing the leaves out of my eave troughs, various of our own and 
- ie eens articles were found in the troughs and on the 
| roo 
Fhe crow in his-wild state is alt the ‘time busy at ome "A 
es work as I have described. I cannot discover that he has any design 
in this busy, meddlesome mischief. If there is design in mer 
=- s- 
_ regular pow-wow, a mass convention where they seem " a 
-it is back of the crow in the Great Superintendent of pF ae 
= processes. I have seen crows gather by hundreds and have“ 
— cuss measures and appoint officers, I haye heard their cawn i 
Dy 
