Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1875-01-06
THE LAME CROW.

THE Ia ME tHVW.
@Talk about crows" said Moore
while putting his morning pipe, "thcy're
the most knowing bird IN Florida
Yes, sir, their intelligence L. ahead Of
the niger They can tell Niger
from white man u mile of, and they
know shot gun from rife, 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. Thcy were willing to take
their share of the work too, and were
satisfied with the leavings. IL man
only knowns how to take him, n crows
Just as good as q dog. When I've been
jumping bear or dear, I've had the
crows light on the trees above 'eln, and
sing out Here he is, old man, down
below here Go for himr and if ]
shot and missed, those crows would
actually get disgustcd iccald hear
them talking TO one another and say
ing "0h, he's an old hombre-he don't
know how to shoot but il 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 ! ever saw" continued
Moore "was on the ocean beach just
across from the lower end of the lake.
Last year me and fellow named
Crowell were down there catching
turtle. We used to clean 'cm on q big
beam Of mahogany that had drifted
ashore. There weretbousandsofcrows
on hand picking up the entrails and
scooping out the shells. -fhey were
so noisy that we had TO hollor to un-
dcrstand one another You never see
such n raft crows. They were pretty
shy along in the beginning, but they
kept getting bolder and bolder, and by
and by they walked right up to the
mahogany beam, and stole the choice
steaks that we were saving for our
slves. Well, when Crowell see that,
he began to get mad He swore he
couldn't stand IL, and he hauled up and
gave the crows two barrels of duck
shot. He had in thunderin' charge
IA pailful of shot in each barrel. You
never see such sight. II il had been
raining crows the beech couldn't have
been blacker. You see, this was in
the morning. Well, for several hours
the crows were mighty shy again, but
along in the afternoon they took their
chances once more, and were around
thicher than ever. They fought among
themselves for the shells and the en-
trails, but they gave the steaks wide
berth. They were smart enough to
know what the shooting was for
Well, among the flock we noticed
lame crow with a sickly kind of a cav.
lie had come out from Crowell's bat
terry with one leg gone. lie was
hard sight When We first saw him
his wing was dropping, and he was
a limping along and 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 too. You see the other
crows didn't give him living show.
He would have starved TO death II we
hadn't sympathixed with him, and seen
that he got his share, We fed him the
incest chucks Of turtle and he got 80
tame that he'd limp up within 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. fle seemed to be
growing weak inspite ofall the building
up we gave him. One day we missed
him. Crowell felt mighty bad. He
almost Grid. "Poor Santa Anna, says
he, couldn't 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 as bad about il as Crowell, and
no mistake. Down here in the wilder.
ness, where you don't see a white man
once in years, a fellow gets nightly
attached to crow when he's social
like and puts confidence in you. well,
all that day the crows kept coming
in and a ripping away at the lights
and livers, but poor Santa never turned
up. reckon if we talked about him
once we talked about him hundred
times.
"Thc next afternoon while we were
dressing big turtle we heard a feeble
kind Of cav, and Crowell sung out
Here's Santa Anna again, as sure as
you're bornr and sure enough, there
was the little black cuss hopping
along on one foot over the sand. He
cooked his head on one side, and seemed
laundering glad to see us. We were
hypercunc, We picked out the rich
est part of the turtle and fed him.
We'll, good Lord, you'd ought to have
seen that crow eat. lie stuffed him,
himself so full that he couldn't holler.j
You could see him swell out like rub
Der ball. The other crows stood off
about twenty feet watching him.
The little hombrc got all he wanted
and then started off. He limped aw-
fully for about fifteen feet, and ] heard |
Crowcll say, Poor little devil I'm
afraid he'll never get WELL Just then
the crow stopped, and kind shook up |
A .