The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1891-05-09
IKE AND LOT.
Two Crows Almost as Intelligent as Human
Beings.

longing to young Albeit Gibson, whose
parents own a farm III WyomIng county.
Albert is sixteen years cll, and lie
takes great delight in showing his tame
crows to strangers, in telling how he
caught and raised them, and in relat-
ing the many cute and curious tricks
that the rnischievous birds have played
on him and the rest of the family dur
ing the last year. His statements are
all facts, however, and they are vouched
FOX by all Of Mr.. Gibson's folks, es-
pecilIly by Mrs. Gibson, who declares
that her sons tricky pets are the pest
OF her life every day in the week. If
you stay al the Gibson homes cad for
q few hours YOU will see the birds do
many ot the very things that young
Albert has tod you about. He named
the crows 'Ike and Lot" aud they
respond to his call from the orchard,
from the woodland on the bill, aud
from any part of the farm that is not
too far off for his voice to reach. Ike
Is a queer looking fellow for crow,
bat he is thoroughbred, neverthe
less.
Ooe year ago last June Albert climb,
ed a tall hemlock tree in a piece OF
woods on his fathers farm, took Ike
and Lot out Of the nest of their noisy
parents, put them in Little sack and
lowered them at the end of string to
another boy at the butt IF the tree.
The young crows were not quite old
enough to fy, but they would have
been in TWO or three days, aud he
captured them in jlst the night time.
He placed the birds in a box IN the
chipyard. and seeing that they were
real hungry, he ran TO the swamp and
caught half dozen frogs. These he
chopped into small pieces and dropped
them into the wide-open bills of the
greedy youngsters, keeping it up until
their crops bulged out like blown up
bladders. The next day he shot a
couple Of chipmunks and fed them to
the crows III the same way, following
that up by catching mouse and some
more frogs for the captive birds. They
thrived we'll and grew fast on that kind
Of diet, and on the twelfth day Albert
let them ont OF the box. That was all
he did to tame the crows. From then
on they followed him all oyer the
farm, tagged him through a piece of
woods when he went to drive the
cattle bone, and took an interest in
whatever work he happened to be do
ing. Wnen he hoed corn or potatoes
they often got close to his hoe in their
scramble for worms, and he had to be
very careful about where he stepped,
so eager were they to gobble up every
crawling thing that was unearthed.
lust as soon as they had got their fill
of worms the cOnfding creatures flew
over to the fence, perched themselves
on stakes and sat there in silence for
two hours at stretch, keeping an eye
on the lad while he worked. Ere
quently Ike and Lot flew away to the
woods and had a visit with the wild
crows, but they never failed to return
in the course Of an hour or so. They
ate grain with the hens, and the do
mestic fowls seemed 10 like them.
One morning Albert filed his vest
pocket with ten penny nails and went
cut 10 fix some loose boards on the
hen-house. The work made him pers
pire freely, and he pulled off his vest
and hung It on the fence before he
had got ready to use the nails. When
he went to get the nails there were only
three ia the pocket. He hadn't no.
ticed the crows for quite awhile, but
he suspected right away that one OF
them had stolen the nails. Looking
around, he sped Lot sitting on the
fence, few yards from where the vest
was hanging. The bird appeared to
be mopiDg, but he wasn't. He looked
as innocent as lamb, but he was plan
ming mischief al the time. Albert went
back to the side of the hen house,
kept at his work an didn't let on that
lie noticed the crow. Presently Lot
walked slowly along the top OF the
fence toward the vest, eyeinS the
Young man all the way. When he was
directly ever the garment he glanced
at Albert ana then at the vest six or
eight times. Seeing that the young
man wasn't paying any attention to him
Lot hoped down aud caught on the
edge OF the pocket hole with Claws.
Then he glanced at Albert once more
and took sidelong look into the poe
ket. He wasn't beng watched, he
thought, and SO he thrust his bill into
the pocket, caught hold OF nail, gave
a veil of triumph aud sailed out OF
sight behind the barn. Albert ran
after the cunning thief and found all
the nails nicely piled up at the end of
a plank near the barn door.
An aunt Of Albert's was visiting at
Farmer Gibson's house last fall. She
had a nice silver thimble, and without
thinking of the thievish habits OF
Albcrt's pets, she placed her thimble
on the dining room table one afternoon.
The windows and doors were open at
the time. From his perch on the limb
of pine tree in the front yard Ike
spied the thimble, and through the
window he sailed. With a yell he
caught i; in his beak, and out of the
house he flew. Albert chased the
mischievous rascal, and every few rods
the cunning crow put the thimble down
on fences here and there, and waited
until Albert had got pretty close, when