Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1875-03-05
Eelerteh Misrellang.
CURIOUS CROWS.
Remarkable Confidence-Gameb by a Crow

\ ork Herald writes as follows: The
crows had kept up racket since dawn.
Trees and palmetto scrub were black
with them. They alighted in camp
within ten feet of us, and stole the
provisions in the instant our backs
were turned. necessarily did they
scold us. twas plain that they were
anxious for us to breaA camp, SO that
they might pick up -Aat was left.
"Talk about cro', said Moore,
while putting hisD,rning pipe,
"tthey're the fnos$t-@ - ( nvN rIs oirsi1, III
Florida. Yes, sir, their intelligence
is ahead of the niger. They can tell
a niger from a white man mile off.
and they know shot gun from rifle.
They know that they are of no account.
Nobody bankers after crow meat, and
no hunter wastes powder and shot on
them. Why, I've been hunting and
had the crows follow me and point ont
the game. They were willing to take
their share of the work, too, and We're
satisfied with the leayings. If man
only knows how to take him, a crow 5
just as good as dog. When I've been
jumping il bear or deer, I've had the
crows light ON the trees above EN-,
and sing out: Here he is old man,
down below here. Go for him And
if | shot and missed, those crows
would actually get dsgusted. | could
hear them talking TO one another and
saving: oh he's an hombre-he
don't know how to shoot. But if
brought down the game, they'd scream
and bounce from the trees and sail in
for their diyv.
But the greatest case Of sagacity in
crow that | ever saw. continued
Moore. "was on the ocean beach. Just
across the lower end Of the lake. Last
Year me and fellow named CrowclI
were down there catching turtles. We
used 10 clean EN- on big beam of
mahogany that had drifted ashore
There were thousands Of crows on hand
picking mp the entrails and scooplng
ont the shcels. They were so noisy
that We had to holler to understand
one another. Iou never see such a
raft Of crows. They were pretty shy
along in the beginning. but they kept
getting bolder. and by and by they
walked right 10 the mahogany beam,
and stole the choice steaks We were
saving for ourselves Well, when
CroweIl see that, he began to get mad.
He swore he couldn't stand it, and he
hauled up and gave the crowd two
barrels Of duck shot. He had "A thun-
dering charge pailful of shot III
each barrel. Iou never seen such a
sight. fit had been rainiu@cro the
beach couldn't have been blachcr.-
You see this Was in the morning. Well.
for several hours the crows were nigh
" shy again, but along in the after
noon they took their chances once
more and were around thicker than
ever. They foughtamong themselves
for the shells and entrails, but they
gave the steaks vide berth. They
were smart enough 10 know what the
shooting was for.
"Wcll, among the flock We noticed
lame crow with sickly kind of a
cav. lie had come out from under
Crowell's battery with one leg gone. =
He was hard sight When We first
saw him his wing was dropping, and
he was limping along and a skirm-
ishing around for something To eat,
with the rest of them. We felt sorry
for him. lfyou'd seen him you couldn' I
help but feel sorry, too. You see, the
other crows didn't give him living
show. He would have starved to death
if we hadn't sympathized with him,
and see that he got his share. We fed
him the incest chunks of turtle. and
he got So tame that he'd limp up with
in two or three feet and almost eat out
of our hands. We used To call him
Santa Anna, because, YOU see, he had
lost his leg.
well" continued Moore. "for some
time Santa Anna turned up regularly
for his rations. He seemed to be grow
ing weak, in spite of all the building
up we gave him. One day we missed
him. Crowell felt mighty bad. He
almost cried. Poor Santa Anna"
says he, ''couh roost any place but on
the ground. Some snake has got him,
and that's the last of him." You see
the bird had got to be great favorite.
felt about us bad as Crowell. and no
mistake. Down here in the wilder
ness, where you don't see white man
once in years, ii fellow gets nightly
attached to IA crow when he's social
like, and puts confidence in you. Well,
all that day the crows kept coming
in ripping away at the lights and
livers, but poor Santa Anna never
turned up. | reckon if we talked
about him once we talked about him
Il thousand times,
"The next forenoon, while we were
dressing big turtle, we heard feeble
kind of II cav, and Crowell sang out
''here's Santa Anna again, us sure as
YOU are born.' And sure enough
there was the little black cuss a hop.
ping along on one foot over the sand
He cooked his head on one side, and
seemed laundering glad to see us. We
were hypercane. We picked out the
richest part of the turtle and fed him
Well, good Lord, you'd ought to SEE
that crow eat. He stuffed himself sc
full that he couldn't holler. You
could see him swell out like a rubber
ball. The other crows stood off about