Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1891-12-10
THE INDIAN CROW.
A Reprobate Without One Re-
deeming Trait Of Character.
His Chief Purpose Seems to Be to Fur
nish Synonym for wickedness and
Cunning-WeH Able to Take
Care of Himself.

1iC wears tAc outN dTu ScLn 'l1dHce OF
the common jackdaw. and his DISPOSE
ton is somewhat similar; but the most
abandoned iaclSdaw 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 u
noisy and undesirable neighbor but
his shortcomings and faults are as
nothing in the eyes of him whose fate
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 a ca
reer of audacious wickedness which
would shock 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
f1edglings 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: COMFORTING him
self with brazen sprightliness that the
guileless 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 ba-
zaar, conscious that the mild Hindu
will 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 Unsuitable, com bining 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 on
the vera nda railing. His legs are bent,
his wings are half open, and his body
thrust forward in readiness to take the
instant flight for which his uneasy con-.
science warns him always to be pre-
pared. He carries his head on one side
and his beak agape; his wicked eye is
restlessly rolling; he looks exactly
what we know him to be-to wit,
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 never will. He is
waiting until your back is turned to
drop noiselessly in at the open window,
thence feloniously 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
purloins from sheer superfiuity of
naughtiness, for in nine cases out of
ten he leaves his booty on the most in
accessible part of the bungalow roof,
after subjecting it to a 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 hoy" for
losing an article he never touched.
The black servant hates the crow
Win q uecp hdtS nOt uuIuiAeu
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 GER
tainly the birds close intimacy with
the minutie of Anglo-Indian house
keeping gives this theory plausibility
This, by the way. l 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 gold stud, has an irresistible
attraction for the crow, and the boy
knows it; indeed, what a native servant
does not know is not worth learning.
Hence, when such an article mysteri- |
ously 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. l mention this as |
an exceptional case. Both the khitmu- !
gar and mesalchee 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
IL again Needless to saw the crow