Peet UB ON BWM ke EN 45 
life, | have had them by the dozens and I will admit they are just as cute 
as they are black. I once had one that would say “‘Look out!” so plain 
and sharp that he would cause you to flinch, but I never kept but one 
to be over a year old. Then he, like all the rest, died guilty of murder in 
the first degree. 
In 1898 I enclosed four acres with a wire fence seven feet high. There 
I raised English and ringneck pheasants for profit. This pheasantry was 
right alongside of my brick and drain tile manufacturing plant. I could 
watch my machinery and overlook the pheasantry all from the same spot. 
In this way I made my hobby more than self-sustaining and gathered 
stores of knowledge about the enemies of our birds and let me say to any 
young man, breeding game birds for profit is a lovable occupation and 
there is good money in it. The seven-foot fence is not necessary. All 
that is required is a dog-proof fence, but, remember, unless you educate 
yourself how to destroy their many enemies, you had better give up the 
job about two weeks before you start, for this little innocent-looking 
weasel that is no larger than a Northern Ontario chipmunk will kill from 
twenty to thirty of your baby pheasants in one night and crawl through 
one-inch-mesh wire netting to do it, but, remember, you are “interfering 
with the balance of Nature” if you kill him. 
I believe the indoor naturalist calls him the Mouse Weasel because 
the majority of his food is mice. Crows must be checked or they will 
steal every egg laid unless your brood pens are under netting. But, after 
the young pheasants are hatched, I found the hawks and weasels their 
worst enemy. Fifty rods due north of this engine room door is an elm 
tree and morning after morning have I seen a crow perched in the top 
watching my neighbor’s turkey hen come through the line fence just 
ninety rods east of the tree. Mr. Crow would sit and watch and the very 
minute the turkey came out of the fence row and started back toward 
home, he would fly straight over and get the egg she had laid. This 
could all be seen with my field glasses. Smart? I should say so. They are 
the shrewdest thieves of the bird family, but you say to kill one you are 
“interfering with the balance of Nature” for God put them here. Yes, 
I say, God also put the bedbug here, but He gave man dominion over 
them and the present generation wouldn’t hardly know one if they saw 
it. Crows! God did not put them here to control our poultry, nor our 
song, insectivorous and game birds. He did not even allow them the 
privilege of controlling themselves. He left all of this for man to do. 
Please think that over and look up what he says regarding this point. 
And, as for the grasshoppers the crows eat, this turkey hen’s family 
would condense them all into a Thanksgiving dinner or into twenty-five 
or fifty cents a pound, just as you choose. 
Now, I am not contradicting a word which has been said about the 
crows eating a few wire worms and grubs and so forth, but here is what I 
know about it. If he can find them, he will rob at least one hundred of 
