CROW. 
125 
in Europe, have neglected to offer rewards for their destruction. In 
the United States they have been repeatedly ranked in our laws Avith 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 Avhom 
they are delivered. On all these accounts various modes have been 
invented for capturing them. They have been taken in clap-nets com- 
monly 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 decoction of hellebore, which when eaten by them 
produces giddiness, and finally, it is said, death. Pieces of paper, 
formed into the shape of a hollow cone, besmeared within with birdlime, 
and a grain or tAvo 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 upAvards to a great height ; but generally 
descend near the spot Avhence 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 
CroAVS rise in great uproar, and amidst the general consternation, by 
the light of the burnin£i;s, hundreds of them are shot doAvn. 
CroAYS have been emplo3^cd to catch Crows, by the folloAving stratagem. 
A live crow is pinned by the Avings doAvn to the ground on his back, 
by means of tAvo sharp, forked sticks. Thus situated, his cries are 
loud and incessant, particularly if any other CroAA^s are Avithin view. 
These SAveeping doAvn about him, are instantly grappled liy the prostrate 
prisoner, by the same instinctive impulse that urges a droAvning person 
to grasp at everything Avithin his reach. Having disengaged tlie game 
from his clutches, the trap is again ready for another experiment ; and 
by pinrdng down each captive, successively, as soon as taken, in a short 
time you aauII probably have a large flock screaming above yon, in con- 
cert Avith the outrageous prisoners beloAV. Many farmers, hoAvever, are 
content Avith hanging up the skins, or dead carcasses, of CroAA's, in their 
corn-fields by way of terrorem ; others depend altogether on the gun, 
keeping one of their people supplied with ammunition, and constantly 
on the lookout. In hard Avinters, the CroAA's suffer severely, so that 
they have been observed to fall down in the fields, and on the roads, 
exhausted with cold and hunger. In one of these winters, and during 
a long-continued deep snoAv, more than six hundred CroAvs Avere shot on 
the carcass of a dead horse, Avhich was placed at a proper distance from 
the stable, from a hole of Avhich the discharges were made. The pre- 
miums aAvarded for these, Avith 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 CroAV is easily raised and domesticated ; and it is only Avhen thus 
