200 
VERTEBIiATA. 
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. 
"So universal is the hatred to crows, that few states, 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-croius. Corn has been steeped in a strong decoction of 
hellebore, which, when eaten by them, produces a giddiness, 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 dropped 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 upward 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 amid 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 stratagem : a live crow is pinned 
by the wings down to the ground on his back by means of two sharp, forked sticks. Thus situ- 
ated, his cries are loud and incessant, particularly if any other crows are within view. These, 
sweeping down about him, are instantly grappled by the prostrate prisoner, by the same instinct- 
ive impulse that urges a drowning person to grasp at every thing within his reach. Having dis- 
engaged the game from his clutches, the trap is again ready for another experiment ; and by pin- 
ning down each captive successively, as soon as taken, in a short time you will probably have a 
large flock screaming above you, in concert with the outrageous prisoners below.* Many farm- 
ers, however, are content with hanging up the skins or dead carcasses of crows in their corn-fields, 
in terrorem ; others depend altogether on the gun, keeping one of their people supplied with am- 
munition, and constantly on the look-out. In hard winters the crows suffer severely, so that they 
have been observed to fall down in the fields, and the roads, exhausted with cold and hunger. In 
one of these winters, and during a long-continued, deep snow, more than six hundred crows were 
shot on the carcass of a dead horse, which was placed at a proper distance from the stable, from a 
hole of which the discharges were made. The premiums awarded for these, with the price paid 
for the quills, produced nearly as much as the original value of the horse, besides, as the man 
himself assured me, saving feathers sufficient for filling a bed. 
"The crow is easily raised and domesticated, and it is only when thus rendered unsuspicious 
of, and placed on terms of familiarity Avith man, that the true traits of his genius and native dis- 
position fully develop themselves. In this state he soon learns to distinguish all the members 
of the family ; flies toward the gate screaming at the approach of a stranger; learns to open the 
door by alighting on the latch ; attends regularly at the stated hours of dinner and breakfast, 
which he appears punctually to recollect ; is extremely noisy and loquacious ; imitates the sounds 
of various words pretty distinctly ; is a great thief and hoarder of curiosities, hiding in holes, cor- 
ners, and crevices every loose article he can carry off, particularly small pieces of metal, corn, 
bread, and food of all kinds ; is fond of the society of his master, and will know him even after a 
long absence, of which the following is a remarkable instance, and may be relied on as a fact : 
a very worthy gentleman, who resided on the Delaware, a few miles below Easton, had raised a 
* In New England scare-craws in the form of ragged, beggarly men are generally adopted to save the recently 
planted corn from the crows and blackbirds, many of these specimens of art displaying considerable humor ; some- 
times a windmill with a clapper is set in the field ; shingles and pieces of tin suspended by a twine, and whirling in 
the wind, are common. But the cheapest and best defence of the corn-field is no doubt a series of lines of twine strung 
across the field. A kind of twine for this express purpose is manufactured and sold in the country stores. 
