CROW. 
239 
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, while she is sitting ; occasionally relieves her ; 
and when she returns, again resigns 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 the middle of 
June, that the crow is most destructive to the com 
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 some- 
times twice, and even three times, occasioning a consi- 
derable additional expense, and inequality of harvest. 
No mercy is now shewn 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 com- 
manding 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 begum 
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 crow himself sometimes falls a prey to the 
