244 
CORVUS CORONE. 
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 sufficient for filling a bed. 
The crow is easily raised and domesticated ; and it 
is only when thus rendered unsuspicious of, and placed 
oil terms of familiarity with, man, that the true traits 
of his genius and native disposition fully develop them- 
selves. 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 sound of various words 
pretty distinctly ; is a great thief and hoarder of curio- 
sities, 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 following is a remarkable 
instance, and may be relied on as a fact : A very worthy 
gentleman, now [1811] living in the Gennesee country, 
but who, at the time alluded to, resided on the Dela- 
ware, a few miles below Easton, had raised a crow, 
with whose tricks and society he used frequently to 
amuse himself. This crow lived long in the family ; 
but at length disappeared, having, as was then supposed, 
been shot by some vagrant gunner, or destroyed by 
accident. About eleven months after this, as the gentle- 
man, one morning, in company with several others, was 
standing on the river shore, a number of crows happen- 
ing to pass by, one of them left the flock, and flying 
directly towards the company, alighted on the gentle- 
