The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-01-29
THE CROH ".

within lU feet OF us, and stole the provisions
the instant our backs we've turned. Inces-
sanity did they scold us. 1t was plain that
they were anxious for us to break camp 50
that they might pick up what was left.
Talk about crows said Moore, while
putting his morning pipe, ''they're the most
knowing bind in Florida. Yes, sir, their
intelligence is ahead of the nigger. They
tell a nigger from white man mile off,
and they know a 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 out the game. They
were willing to take their share Of the work,
too, and were satisfied with the lcavings.
IL man only knows how to take him,
crow is just as good as dog. When I've
been jumping ii bear or a deer, I've had the
crows light on trees above 'em and sing out:
s'Here lie is, old man, down below here :.
Go for him ~ And if | shot and missed
those crows would actually get Disguised,
and could hear them talking to one anoth-
er and saying, 'Oh, he's an old 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 divvy.
''But the greatest case of sagacity in
crow that l ever saw continued Moore,
twas on the ocean beach, just aer0sS the
lower end of the lake. Las. year me auo a
fellow named Cr0well were down there
catching turtle. y esed 70 cisau 'er' oa
; -, heaYf of mai gllIy tiiat irs,. a{se3
ashore. There we're thousands Of crows on
band 2 pickiag up the entrails and scoop
ing out the shells. They were so noisy
that we had to boiler TO understand one
another. You never seen such a raft of
crows. They were pretty shy along in the
beginning, but kept getting boider and bold
er, and by aud by they walked. right up to
the mahogany beam, and stole the choice
steaks that we were saving for ourselves.
Well, when CTowcll seen that. he began TO
get mad He swore he couldn't stand 1t,
and he hauled up and gave the crows two
barrels of duck-shot. lie had in = thun-
derin' charge-a pailful of shot in each
barrel. You never see such sight. Ifit
had been raining crows the beach couldn't
have been blacker. You sec, this was in
tue morning. We'll, for several hours the
crows were mighty shy again, but along i'll
the afternoon they took their chances once
They fought among themselves for ihe
shells and the entrailS, but they gave the
steaks wide berth. They were smart
enough to know what the shooting was Cor.
"Well, among the flock we noticed
lame crow, with sickly kind Of 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 skirmishing around for something to eat.
with the rest of them. We felt sorry for
him. If you'd seen him you couldn't help
but feel sorry for him 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 seen
that he got his share. We fed him the
incest chunks of turtle, and be got so tame
that he'd limp up withn'two or three feet,
and almost cat 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 growing
weak in spite OF all the building up we gave
him. One day we missed him. Crowell
felt mighty bad. Poor Santa Anna
co. ho H,,-f B.-f
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 as bad
about it as Crowell, and no mistake. Down
here i'll the wilderness, where you don't
see white man once year, fellow gets
nightly attached to a crow wien he's So
cial like and puts confidence in you. Wen
al that day the crows kept a coming in and
ripping away at the lights and livcrs, but
poor Santa never turned up. / reckon if
we talked about him once we talked about
him a hundi ed times.
''The next forenoon, while VIC were
dressing big turtle, we heard feeble kind
Santa Anna again, as sure as you're bornr
anG sure enough there was the little black
cuss a hopping along on one foot over the
sand. He cooked bis head on one side, and
seemed laundering glad to see us. We
were hypercaue. We picked out the rich
est part of the turtle and fed him. Well,
good Lord, you'd ought to have seen that
crow eat. He stuffed himself so full that
he couldn't hollcr. You could see him
swell out like rubber ball. The other
crows stood off about 20 feet watching him.
The little hombre got all he wanted, and
then started off. He limped awfully for
about Is feet, and | heard Crowell say
Poor little devil. I'm afraid he'll never get
WE'LL Just then the crow stopped, and
kind a shook up his wing. Then, as I'm
alive and asinner, he dropped another little
black foot, and walked or ON two legs rs
canpI os d.,liar ha athor crows 10 mi