86 
CROW. 
by the same instinctive impulse that urges a drowning person 
to grasp at every thing within his reach. Having disengaged 
the game from his clutches, the trap is again ready for another 
experiment ; and by pinning 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 farmers, however, are content with 
hanging up the skins, or dead carcasses, of Crows in their corn 
fields, in terror em ; others depend altogether on the gun, 
keeping one of their people supplied with ammunition, 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 on 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 suffi- 
cient 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 with man, that the true traits of his genius and 
native disposition fully develope themselves. In this state he 
soon learns to distinguish all the members of the family ; flies 
towards 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, corners, 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 
