St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-02-04
HOODWINKING CROWS.
A Sport That Never Fails to Amuse
the BOYS UD in the North Woods

the Boys Up i'm the North Woods.
Small boys who live in New York CITY
and other warmer climates may imag-
Inc that small boys up here in the woods
don't have any fun during the long
winter months, but remain by the
kitchen fires like the alternating bears
in their nests. The weather is some
what cold, and the snow falls are some
what deep, but if there is any boy in
the world that has to alternately stand
on one foot and dig his heels into the
snow for want of better ways to express
how much fun he is having, it is the
Herkimer county boy. He has no end
OF fun. One of the things he does at
this time of the year is to trap crows.
be might trap them in the spring lust
as well, but he does not, because by that
time he has some other way of amusing
himself. One of the birds that loves
Herkimer county is the crow. The
crows increase ard multiply here like
pigeons on rOOSt, If not quite so rap
idly as mosquitoes or black flies. along
West Canada creek, and by Herkimer
county farmers the crow is classed as
nOXlOuS Vermin to be eXterminated by
fair means or foul. The farmers gener-
ally use smooth-bOre musket. loaded
with No. shot: but not until by swing
ing barrels and pieces of tin and Irvine
stretched over his cOrnfeld he has
vainly tried to brighten them away.
The crow makes the farmer very angry,
but to the farmers boy he is source Of
great delight.
The first thing the boy does who wants
to have some fun with the crows is to
go out to the back end of the lot where
the corn was planted in the spring, and
throw pOcketful of corn broadcast on
the ground, if the ground is bare, or on
the snow, if the snow has a crust Oh it.
When the snow is soft the game WON'T
work, because the corn is lost in the
snow. Then he goes back to the house
and waits till the next day, when he goes
and does the same thing over again. BY
this time all the crows in the neighbour
hood have heard about the great spread
of grain back by the slab fence in the old
cOrnfield, and are wondering how it hap.
pened that they didn't see all that corn
there before. Then the boy takes half a
pint of linseed oil and puts it into an old
baking powder can, and puts the can
into q pot of water, which he sets boil
ing on the kitchen stove. The oil bOilS
down pretty thick after while, and the
can is removed.
Meantime the boy has taken some of
the stoutest manila wrapping paper he
can find in the house. and has made
three or four cOrnucOpiaS of ii. The
paper that was used to wrap up his new
winter suit that his father bought in
Utica is just the stuff. The boiled
down oil is used to stick the paper to-
gether into the shape of a cOrnucOpia,
and thick ring of it is put around the
inside of the base of the cone thus made.
Then the boy goes out with his cornu-
cOpias to the slab fence. and digs little
holes in the ground and drops the cornu-
cOpias into the holes. He drops three
or four grains of corn into the cOrnu-
cOpiaS, throws a handful loose on the
ground, and once more returns home,
where he sits down by the back window
and keeps his eye on the neighborhOOd
where the slab fence is.
Then the crows gather at the feast az
| before, and pretty soon one spies corn
| galore at the bottom of a cOrnucOpia,
Down goes his head and then it comes
up again, bringing the cOrnucOpia with
| it. That is the most astonishing thing
to the crow that he can remember anyl
| thing about since the day he was
Matched. The sticky boiled oil has
stuck the cOrnucOpia fast to the feath.
ers OH his neck and he is blindfOlded as
| if by FOOLS cap. With harsh cry he
backs straight away from it only to find
that it follows right along. He gets eX-
flop his wings and scream, whereupOu
| the rest of the flock become interested
and gather around to ask him what
makes him act so. The more sympa.
thetic they become the more the hood
winked crow is demoralized. until With
bedraggled and disOrdered plumage and
weakened voice he presents spectacle
that makes the North Woods boy wild
with glte.
Sometimes the crow gets a claw on tho
cornucopia and tears part of it clear O,
his head and flies away. but he usually
is unable to do this; and after the boz
can laugh at him no more the bird fall
a victim to the club which the boy usei
to kill him with.
If he gets away by tearing the foolI
cap, the paper collar remains about hi
neck until worn away, for nothing car
separate the paper from the sticky gun
made of boiled oil.
This method of taking crows may be
illegal, but the farmers consider thu
bird such pest that man here would
as soon make fuss about trappingi
bear as trapping crow.