Woodville Republican. (Woodville, Miss.) 185?-current, 1889-08-17
CROWS AND CRANES.
Hitherto Unpublished Facts Con-
cerning These Creatures.
Swift and Righteous RetrIbutIon Judi
ciOusly Administered by Feathered
COurt-Motive of the Crane Cotil-
lion ExDlninad.

NouEt-AOJAb0 OF tno CEAuo COtn-
lion Explained.
"The statements made by Colonel
Sam Knight of St. Louis, in regard to
sand-hill cranes indulging themselves
at odd times in tho pleasures of the
may cotillion, said an accomplished
naturalist, and their holding court and
trying and convicting some moral de-
linquent among them, and executing
the death sentence upon him, have been
referred to in my presence as pleasant
freaks OF tho Western imagination. To
one who has made a study of the ways
and means Of furred, feathered, flnned,
and scaled denizens of the forest the
air, the stream, the lake. the swamp
as have for years, such incredulity is
painful
THE crow, for instance, is popularity
regarded as a common and irreclaima-
Bile thief, a conscienceless despoiler, a
feathered freebooter, and outlaw. Per-
haps he is all these. He may have his
own ideas as to how the rights and
property Of others should be regarded
and distributed by him, but within the
ranks Of his own kind there has got to be
honor and fair play and fair dealing. or
the transgessor must suffer- have seen
enough of the methods of crow gov
ernment to satisfy me that it has a code
of procedure rigid and impartial but
with punishment swift and severe.
'|The best place that l know of for
studying the crow and his curious and
systematic ways is at Crow Neck, Me.
As long as any one in that part ol
Maine can remember ithas been liter
ally crow settlement. To my mind il
is regular seat of justice, for my OBJ.
servation was. and the daily testimony
OF the natives is, that the vast flocks oi
crows that congregate there both winter
and summer always have on their hands
the trial of some culprit or culprits.
My attention was attracted to this fact
on the first day visited Grow Neck,
early in the spring, few years ago.
AS I walked along l noticed one big
crow, a vicious-looking bird, acting ir
suspicious manner, and got behind {
tree and watched him. He was stealing
in the most cautious manner through
the branches OF a tail pine toward G
nest that had been built we'll toward tn,
top. With strong field-glass watched
the crows movements. Finally hC
reached the nest, and, lighting on a
limb near it, began to peck away at thu
eggs that were evidently in it, and ca
them ravenously AS he was thus rob
bing the nest, suddenly three othel
crows pounced down on the robbei
crow from neighboring tree, where
they had evidently been hiding, anC
seized the crow thus detected in hi
misdoing. The peculiar cries OF th'
three captors quickly brought a swarm
of cawing, jabbering crows from al
parts OF the woods, and soon the tre'
where the capture had been made anC
all the SURROUNDING trees were blacl
with indignant and noisy members O
the great family of birds. After min
ute or two OF this excited interchang,
OF opinion on the subject, there wa!
an interim OF comparative quiet, only
two or three big crows having any thing
to say. Then the culprit crow, sur
rounded by a guard Of fellows, and ac
companied by the entire crow con
tingent, cawing inordinately, was forced
to fly along with the rest in the direc
tion of big field, on which the wood;
bordered Holly interested in this Gu
rious proceeding, followed the crows
as fast as my legs would carry me, de-
termined to be witness to the climax
of the crime and the arrest of the
criminal.
when / reached the edge of the
field the air was still black with crows
which, with an appalling whirring
shrieking and cawing, were swiftly de
scending to the center of the field
where they were quickly massed in {
glistening multitude They formed al
immense circle, within which was lef
a large open space. into which strobe {
dozen dignihed-looking members of tht
great gathering. They stood in a little
group by themselves, and before then
was arraigned another crow, whose
dropping feathers and head hanging
down plainly indicated that he was th'
egg robber who had been detected il
despoiling fellow crows nest and ar
rested in the act Before any further
proceedings were had two other loudly
cawing but small hocks of crows cam'
from the woods, and alighting in th'
op space in the circle. delivered VI
two more guilty-iooking crows, wht
had evidently been taken red-handed
or, more properly speaking, beak
stained, in crime. These two wer'
ranged at the side of the first culprit
Their arrival was the signal for another
violent vocal outbreak on the part o
tho outraged assemblage. ] noticed il
particular that neither of the prisoner
Uttered q sound amid all the tumult o