THE CEO W. 
71 
often blasting tbeir expectations. Hated as he is by the 
farmer, watched and persecuted by almost every bearer of a 
gun, who all triumph in his destruction, had not Heaven 
bestowed on him intelligence and sagacity far beyond com- 
mon, there is reason to believe that the whole tribe (in 
these parts at least) would long ago have ceased to exist. 
It is in the month of May, and until the middle of J une, 
that the Crow is most destructive to the corn-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 sometimes twice, and even three times, occa- 
sioning a considerable additional expense, and inequality 
of harvest. No mercy is now shown him. The myriads of 
worms, moles, mice, caterpillars, grubs, and beetles, which 
he has destroyed, are altogether overlooked on these occa- 
sions. 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 commanding 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 begun. 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 
