CROW 



81 



in robbing the liens' nests, pulling up the corn, and killing the 

 young chickens, he is considered as an outlaw, and sentenced to 

 destruction. But the great difficulty is how to put this sentence in 

 execution. In vain the gunner skulks along the hedges and fences, 

 his faithful centinels, planted on some commanding point, raise 

 the alarm, and disappoint vengeance of its object. The coast again 

 clear, he returns once more in silence to finish the repast he had 

 begun. Sometimes he approaches the farm house by stealth, in 

 search of young chickens, which he is in the habit of snatching off 

 when he can elude the vigilance of the mother hen, who often 

 proves too formidable for him. A few days ago a Crow was ob- 

 served eagerly attempting to seize some young chickens in an or- 

 chard, near the room where I write; but these clustering close 

 round the hen, she resolutely defended them, drove the Crow into 

 an apple tree, whither she instantly pursued him with such spirit 

 and intrepidity, that he was glad to make a speedy retreat, and 

 abandon his design. 



The Crow himself sometimes falls a prey to the superior 

 strength and rapacity of the Great Owl, whose weapons of offence 

 are by far the more formidable of the two."^ 



* "A few years ago," says an obliging correspondent, " I resided on the banks of the 

 Hudson, about seven miles from the city of New York. Not far from the place of my resi- 

 dence was a pretty thick wood or swamp, in which great numbers of Crows, who used to cross 

 the river from the opposite shore, were accustomed to roost. Returning homeward one after- 

 noon from a shooting excursion, I had occasion to pass through this swamp. It was near sun- 

 set, and troops of Crows were flying in all directions over my head* While engaged in ob- 

 serving their flight, and endeavouring to select from among them an object to shoot at, my 

 ears were suddenly assailed by the distressful cries of a Crow, who was evidently struggling 

 under the talons of a merciless and rapacious enemy. I hastened to the spot whence the 

 sounds proceeded, and to my great surprise, found a Crow lying on the ground, just expiring, 

 and seated upon the body of the yet warm and bleeding quarry, a large brown Owl, who was 

 beginning to make a meal of the unfortunate robber of corn-fields. Perceiving my approach, 

 he forsook his prey with evident reluctance, and flew into a tree at a little distance, where he 

 sat watching all my movements, alternately regarding, with longing eyes, the victim he had been 

 forced to leave, and darting at me no very friendly looks, that seemed to reproach me for hav- 



VOL. IV. X 



