C rows and Jays. — J. M. W., while out in 
the woods at Norwich, 
eating- a nest of Javs eggs. T^og eat doe 1 . 
Qi/tryr*' , 
A tame crow died in this city lately which de- 
serves an obituary of a word for its linguistic 
power. When called home from a neighbor’s 
yard, it would say “ I won’t ! ” When told not 
to run away, it would answer, “I will!” More 
distinctly than most Parrots and Cockatoos, I 
have heard it repeat twelve or thirteen words, 
though its vocabulary was said to be much larger. 
O.&o. X.May.l833.p.7^ 
Then we struck across an opening to the 
wood on the other side, and soon saw a Crow 
sitting hard on her nest in a tall chestnut. 
We rapped on the tree for her to get off but ^ 
she did not respond, so I shot one barrel of my ^ ^ 
gun about a foot from the nest; but this did _ cj,' 
not seem to wake her up. My companion (wlio'K b 
by the way was rather near-sighted) declared 
there was no bird on the nest, so to convince ^ ■A 
him I shot the other barrel into the nest and^ 5 ^ 
this moved her and as she flew my companion ^ 5* 
dropped her, but as the eggs arc so common ^ § 
and the tree a hard one to climb we did not 
get the eggs. 
NS 
Bds. Obs. at Little and Great Gull r e - 
lande, N.Y. Aug. ’88 B. H. Dutch, r. 
14. Corvus americanus. American Crow. — Four unlucky Crows 
some time in the spring before the Terns arrived, decided to take up their 
residence on Great Gull Island. By what motives they were actuated I 
do not know. It might have been that they came in search of food, or they 
might have been seeking solitude. If the first conjecture be true they must 
have gotten plenty of that that they sought; for the island was well 
stocked with the eggs and young of the Terns. If the last conjecture be 
true they were sadly disappointed, for no sooner had the Terns arrived 
than they fell on the Crows and persecuted them relentlessly until we put 
an end to their misery. Leave the island they could not, for did one at- 
tempt to rise a horde ofTerns was at him almost before he had risen above 
the grass, and screaming, diving, and dashing at the unfortunate bird, 
would soon drive him back to the earth again, and then, as if not content 
with that, would continue to worry him long after he had settled down. 
The Crows were in a sorry plight indeed, for the Terns, not satisfied with 
worrying their victims at a distance, even went so far as to peck out the 
poor birds’ feathers ; and between the exuviae that the Terns had dropped 
upon them, and the light patches where the feathers had been picked out, 
the Crows presented a rather mottled appearance. From the upper 
mandible of one Crow a piece of the sheath and bone, half an inch long 
and an eighth deep, had been gouged out. undoubtedly by the lower 
mandible of a Tern. This incessant persecution had rendered the Crows 
so tame that we could always approach to within twenty-five feet of them 
before they would fly. And Chas. B. Field told me that on one occasion 
he caught one in his hand, the bird preferring rather to be caught by the 
man than to be chased by the Terns. 
Auk. VI. April, 1889. P. 
Intelligence of a Crow. — A tame Crow ( Corvus americanus) in my 
possession lias repeatedly amused me by the novel method he adopts to 
rid himself of parasites. For this purpose he deliberately takes his stand 
upon an ant-mound, and permits the ants to crawl over him and carry 
away the troublesome vermin. The operation seems mutually agreeable 
to all parties, the ants quickly seizing upon the parasites and hearing them 
away. I have also noticed the same habit in another tame Crow that I 
formerly had in my possession. — Abbott M. Frazar. 
Bull. N, 0,0, I t Sept, 1876, e . 74. 
