forest and stream 
663 
e, Our Friends and Neighbors, Are, Because of the Ignorance and Stupidity of 
Man, Becoming Alarmingly Scarce 
seats, grasshoppers, mice, rats, snakes, frogs, 
«tc.; and it is those creatures that they are watch¬ 
ing for, and it is such a creature and not a bird 
that they seize when occasionally they are seen 
to drop suddenly to the ground. 
In addition to the fact that there are only 
three or four varieties of hawk that prey to any 
extent on birds, there is the additional fact, thal 
excess in that direction, sq far as poultry is 
concerned, is a characteristic of only occasional 
individuals. One particular hawk in some lo¬ 
cality develops himself in the habit or sport of 
chicken hunting, while all his brothers may be 
indifferent. This is also known to be a char¬ 
acteristic of foxes and crows. An occasional 
crow will sometimes develop quite a depredating 
habit. So of minks, skunks, weasels, and all. 
The modern hostility to crows is most abused. 
The few of them that are left cannot possibly 
■do any substantial harm. They are an extremely 
interesting and intelligent bird; and a great 
adornment to our winter landscape, which with¬ 
out them, would be barren indeed. We have 
exterminated so much from it, for heaven’s 
sake let up keep the crow with his keen intelli¬ 
gence in self protection, and his shining gorgeous 
suit of black. His daily sweep of his vast do¬ 
main of frozen ground and return to his roost 
mg forest at night is a delight to all lovers 
of nature. 
The hostility towards him of the last few 
years is most extraordinary when we consider 
that a generation or two ago he was at least 
five hundred times as numerous as he is now 
and did no substantial harm; for the song birds 
and game flourished abundantly in spite of him 
and had been flourishing along with him for 
thousands of years. I can remember that time 
when the fields were often literally black with 
dense flocks and those same fields gave larger 
crops and more game then than now. Crows oc¬ 
casionally treat themselves to the contents of 
bird nests, young chickens and corn sprouts, just 
as do other parts of creation; and why not? 
Birds usually protect their nests from the crows. 
You can occasionally see them doing it; driving 
the crow away, flying at him and pecking him 
as he flees and dodges from them; and it is one 
of the interesting sights in nature. They have 
always been able to keep him off quite well; and 
hold the balance true. 
The people who are so hot after the clever 
old fellow are those who want to exterminate 
everything except some little section of nature 
or of some game they have selected for them¬ 
selves. The government experts take a different 
view and as reported in the Farmer’s Digest for 
May, they find that the crow’s vast destruction 
of grubs, cut worms, and other injurious in¬ 
sects far more than pays for the few sprouts 
of corn he pulls up. In fact, they find that 
when he injures the corn sprout, he is usually 
looking for the cut worm. They followed in¬ 
dividual crows from the cornfield to the nest, 
climbed the tree and found the cut worm fed 
to the young. In the corn season he is not in 
flocks but paired and widely scattered. If he is 
too industrious in a field a scare crow and a 
shot gun keep him off as they have done in the 
past when he was more numerous. After the 
week or two of the sprouting corn has passed 
the crow, as the U. S. Agricultural Department 
puts it, ‘changes from an abnoxious to an ex¬ 
emplary member of bird society.” He waees 
no scanty meed of praise from the grass farmer.” 
The blackbird is often as bad as the crow 
when he picks at the ears of corn in August 
when they are in the milky state. But in some 
places as along the Delaware River, he is a game 
bird and has recently been protected by law. 
Do not get too excited about his picking at the 
milky ears of corn. Drive him away with your 
gun as has always been done. I have had crops 
of corn every year all my life. Fertilize and 
cultivate your crop well and there will be enough 
for you and Blackey as there has always been. 
(To be concluded.) 
