St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1888-08-04

listening distance Of . flock Of crows
unusually disturbed. The way they
were handling themselves and jawins
made it plain that they had much more
serious business on hand than their or.
dinary drudgcry in corn-fields and their
day-long tussles with nOn-combative
scarecrows. l stopped my horse and
proceeded to observe rs well as could
what sin the name of Sam Hill the
rumpus>Gas all about. wasn't long
in discoS king that grounding was
the unfortGNe etc creature of all this dis
turbance. The grounding has as SEN
sitive palate to the grain that tum-
bles down in the stubble rs the COW
has. and he had innocently ventured
from his hole to feed a little. The
crows had discovered him. and. look
ing upon him as an intruder. had at
once set about ejecting him. The
woOdchuck's bmrOw was on a piece Of
elevated ground at one edge of the
field. and he was seeking to show the
crows that he meant no oflense by try
ing his best to get out of the stubblc
and back to his own threshold. The
crows did not mean to be propitiated
by this effort of the ground-hog. and
they assailed him on every side with
sharp bcaks and vicious claws. The
progress of the grounding homewarsi
was consequently painful and slow.
Now and then his equanimity would
be upset by some particular savage on
slaught of the crows. and then he
would turn and show fight; but that
only increased the dimensions of the
picnic the crows were having. As
good luck had it for the woodchuck.
he wasn't far from his hole. and by
and by he reached it. and he went in
his front door as if he had never been
so glad to reach his humble abode be-
fore.
1.-The sudden disappearance of the
grounding caused great CONSERVATION
among the crows, and il was some time
before they could make up their minds
whether he had been whiskcd out of
sight in the air or the bottom had
dropped ont somewhere and let him in.
One big old crow flew around among
the others and went through what
seemed to he some sort Of inspection as
if he rather suspected that some one of
them had swallowed the grounding at
a guln. But by and by they seemed to
agree that the missing poacher had
gone into the hole at the edge of the
field. and then they. flew at it and
picked into it and swore like politi-
clans. They quicted down after time
and held solemn confab ut the mouth
Of the Cround-hog's den. The result
of this consultation was that two wise
looking old crows flew to rail fence
twenty feet or SO away and the rest re-
turned and resumed their dinner. l
was hot and SO thirsty that my tongue
felt like whole potato in my mouth.
but ! made up my mind that would
see that circus out, and SO l sat still in
my wagon.
1.-The two crows on the fence watched
that ground-hog's hole without once
taking their eyes of it. l knew then
that they had been placed there rs
sentinels TO give the alarm il the i'm
pudcnt intruder on their field of labor
should appear again. Twenty minutes
went by and no sound was heard from
the scntincls. Suddenly one of them
stepped up close to his companion and
something way down in his
throat. as if he was whispering. What
ever he said seemed to strike the other
crow as being the proper thing. and
he mumbled something back. Then
the two bobbed their heads and con-
fabbed further for minute or so. and
then yelled to the flock out in the field.
The whole lot came flying to the fence.
and a great pOw-wow was held. The
noisy interchange of views seemed to
end in a perfect agreement among the
crows, for they all flew down in body
md surrounded the grounj-hog's hole.
thought at first that they intended
% go to work and dig the poor wood
.huck out and make meal of him.
,ut that idea was soon knocked out of
ny head. What do You suppose they
lid? They all fell to with a will and
'cgan to fill that ground-hog's hole up
With stones and dirt. They worked
md they worked and they worked. and
n the course of half an hour they had |
,luggcd the hole up as far rs they
ould get the dirt and stuff into it.
nd packed it down so hard that moth |
ng less than a pickaxe could have
judged it. l was beginning to feel
orry for that unfortunate woodchuck.
II fastened up in the hole that way.
nd probably pretty badly torn up by |
he attacks of the crows ut that. and
1as resolving in my mind to go and
orrow a pick somewhere and come
ack and dig him out that night after
he crows had gone to roost, when
hat should see but something mov-
,g on the opposite side Of the knoll.
nd presently pop! came the ground
og's head out of the ground. fifty feet
way from where the crows were peg
ing away at fastening him in. and out
+ their sight. The willy animal had
ug his way across and made new
Kit He drew himself out slyly. looked
about for moment listened
then stole around the base
I the knoll. and went back to the
where he took his position
/ the stubble and went to feeding
gain as if nothing had happened. All
his time the crows were still working
way at making the grounding a
risoner. as they supposed. and kept
a for ten minutes after the ground