122 
CROW. 
ternally of sticks, wet moss, thin bark mixed with mossy earth, and 
lined with large quantities of horse hair, to the amount of more than 
half a pound, some cow hair, and some wool, forming a very soft and 
elastic bed. The eggs are four, of a joale green color, marked with 
numerous specks and blotches of olive. 
During this interesting season, the male is extremely watchful, making 
frequent excursions of half a mile or so in circuit, to reconnoitre ; and 
the instant he observes a person approaching, he gives the alarm, when 
both male and female retire to a distance, till the intruder has gone 
past. He also regularly carries food to his mate Avhile she is sitting ; 
occasionally relieves her ; and when she returns, again resigns up his 
post. At this time also, as well as until the young are able to fly, they 
preserve uncommon silence, that their retreat may not be suspected. 
It is in the month of May, and until tlie middle of June, that the 
Crow is most destructive to tlie corn-fields, digging up the newly planted 
grains of maize, pulling up by the roots those that have begun to vegetate, 
and thus frequently obliging the farmer to replant, or lose the benefit 
of the soil ; and this sometimes twice, and even three times, occasioning 
a considerable additional expense and inequality of harvest. No mercy 
is now shown him. The myriads of worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, 
grubs and beetles, which he has destroyed, are altogether overlooked on 
these occasions. Detected in robbing the hens' 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 sentinels, 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 observed eagerly attempting to seize 
some young chickens in an orchard, 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 CroAv himself sometimes falls a prey to the superior strength and 
rapacity of the Great Owl, whose weapons of ofi'ence 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 residence 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 
