Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1891-12-18
THE INDIAN CROW.
A Reprobate Without One Re-
deeming Trait Of Character.
His Chief Purpose Seems to BE to Fur
nish 4 Synonym for Wickedness and
Cunning-wen Able to Take
Care of Himself

Care OF Himself
He wears the outward semblance OF
The common jackdaw, and his disposi-
ton is somewhat similar; but the most
abandoned iackdaw that ever flew is
a model of probity and virtue by COM
parison with the gray-headed reprobate
we call crow The English bird has
defective ideas regarding ownership,
and is admitted on all hands to be
noisy and undesirable neigh bor; but
his shortcomings and faults are as
nothing in the eyes of him whose fnte
it has been to make acquaintance with
the Indian crow.
A kleptomaniac by birth, that crow
makes theft his profession from the
hour he leaves the untidy nest in the
mango tree. wherein his.parents reared
him on stolen goods. From the hour
he can use his wings he pursues ca
reer of audacious wickedness which
would shock a jackdaw into honesty
His character is blacker than his wing
He lives by peculation and larceny,
purloining from man and beast alike.
He revels in cannibalism, stealing the
fedglings of other birds and tearing
them limb from limb to devour while
the blood runs warm. He has not
friend in the world; every hand, every
tooth and every beak is against him,
and he glories in it; comporting him
self with brazen sprightliness that the
guieless robin would blush to see. In
the boundless jungles he might dwell
in peace and earn an honest livelihood,
so he does not live there. He prefers
life of dissipation in town and rears his
family in the trees lining the busy bar
zaar conscious that the mild Hindu
viii not only leave him undisturbed,
but find, unintentionally, living for
him He never strays far from the
haunts of mankind: the poor black
mans rice and chupatti are sweeter to
him than the growing fruit and grain;
and he does not disdain to swindle the
hungry pariah dog out of his inherit
ance of garbage He is omnivorous
and lnsatiable, coml lining the appetite
of the vulture with the tastes of the
ostrich; nothing comes amlss to him;
one minute he steals the toast off your
breakfast table, and the next is one OF
a party discussing dead rat.
Look at him as he perches there op
the veranda railing His legs are bent,
his wings are half open, and his body
thrust forward in readiness to take the
instant fight for which his uneasy con-
science warns him always to be pre-
pared. He carries his head. on one side
and his beak agapc; his wicked eye is
restlessly rolling; he looks exactly
what we know him to be-to wit, q
bad, bold, evilly-disposed bird. He is
on the railing for no good purpose; he
never went anywhere yet on an honor
able errand, and he Eever will. He is
waiting until your back is turned to
drop noiselesslv in at the open window.
thence feloniousiy to steal and carry
away your pen, shirt studs, money or
penknife. no matter what, so long as
it is something loose and portable,
which you want, and he does not He
pnrloins from sheer super1uity of
for in nine cases out of
ten he leaves his booty on the most in
accessible part CT the bungalow roof,
after subjecting il TO cursory examin-
alton, and in the tenth case he drops it
down the well, pretending to SO by
accident AS soon as he has thus dis
posed of your property, he comes back
to the veranda for the express purpose
of hearing you scold your boy for
losing an article he never touched
The black servant hates the crow
with deep nna yTing hate not unmixed
with awe for he regards him as the
abiding place of an evil spirit Gym
ical persons of broad views have been
known to say that dishonest nokkurs
become crows when they die, and cer-
tainly the birds close intimacy with
the minuti@ of Anglo-Indian house
keeping gives this theory plausibility.
This, by the way | was about to re-
fer to the boys practice of saddling his
own misdoings upon the crow Any
thing bright or shining like silver
spoon or a gold stud, has an irresistible
attraction for the crow, and the boy
knows il; indeed, what native servant
does not know is not worth learning
Hence, when such an article mysteri-
ousiy disappears, as things do disap-
pear in the east, the boy always saw
crow done come took it" A crow once
took away four of my tablespoons in
this fashion; but very kindly brought
them Back and laid them in a drawer of
the table in the back veranda, when he
discovered they were electrotypes of
inferior manufacture. I mention this as
an exceptional case. Both the khitmu-
gar and mcsalchee recollected seeing
the crow carry Off those spoons, but
could not remember seeing them
brought back, though they agreed with
me that it must have taken the bird
some time to open the drawer and shut
it again. Needless to say, the crow
never goes to the trouble of restoring
anything that is convertible into annas
and pice in the bazaar.
But inasmuch as the hard-hearted
European skeptic insists on holding his
poor black servant responsible for the
crows misdeeds and docks his monthly
wages in accordance with this princi-
pie native ingenuity is ever on the rack
to devise means of circumventing the
enemy. The birds cunning is SO ex-
traordinary that no ordinary trap de-
ceives him, and the boy has recourse
to all kinds of lodges to accomplish the
desired end Sometimes he makes q
few strong paper cones, and smearing
them inside with birdlime drops NOR
sci of juicy raw meat into each and
throws the snares down on the rubbish
heap behind the cookhouse where
crows do mostly congregatc. Down
comes a crow to investigate. He turns
over cone thoughtfully and applies
his eye to the interior. Meat. by all
that's edible. In goes his bealz and he
is securely "bonnetel." Before he can
claw off the encumbrance the willy
native is upon him and he is borne