The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1893-06-10
EXPLOITS OF A CROW.

When this region was nearly all
woods sixty years ago, said an old resi-
dent of Bell Meadow, 81 picked
young crow out of the mid in Tama-
rack swamp, where he had tumbled
out of the nest before he was old
enough to fly. | named him Abe and
tanned him, and he developed into the
brightest bird | ever saw. Like al
tame crows, Abe was mischievous and
inquisitive. There was knothole in
the floor of our cistern, and the crow
couldn't find out what was under it,
although he tried very hard.
Several times day Abe flew down
to the creek, hunted up pebble and
carried it in his bill to the floor of the
cistern, where he dropped it through
the knothole. The instant he let the
pebble drop he would put his ear close
to the hole and listen. He could hear
the pebble strike the water, and the
noise out of his sight excited lis
curiosity so much that he dropped
half bushel OF pebbles into the cistren
before he gave up.
Abe accompanied me on all my
hunting trips in the tall and winter, and
he saw me kill five or six wolves, half a
dozen wildcats and several deer. The
woods were full of deer, and there were
SO many wolves that we couldn't keep
any sheep. Abe took great liking to
deer and rabbits, but he hated wolves
and wildcats, seeming to understand
that they were destructive and danger
Gus. One afternoon, the summer that
he was year old, Abe flew into our
little clearing and cawed and huttered
about as if he wanted me to leave my
work.
! kncw the crow had seen something
that displeased him, and so l PICKED
up two rifles and told him to 60 ahead
just to see what he would do. He
went squalling through the air toward
Bell Meadow brook, and when he
alighted on tree he Kept yelling and
looking down in the ravine. | looked,
too, little expecting to see what | did.
A pair of wolves were tearing at a doe
they had pounced on and pulled down.
l killed them both before they got three
leaps from the doe, and when Abe saw
that they couldn't move he cawed
and croaked as though he was
glad.
The next winter. there were three
feet. and half of snow on the level,
and we had to wear snowshoes 10 get
around. While | was splitting wood
near the house one cold morning the
crow came sailing and squalllng to the
settlement from the direction of Lake
Henry. He was excited about some
thing, and he perched on the log and
went to Tapping his wings aud dancing
up and down. l understood him well
enough to know that he had seen some
thing that he didn't like the looks ofup
in the woods toward the lake, so and
my brother and cousin put on our snow
shoes, shouldered five loaded rifles and
started into the woods, Abe leading the
way and yelling.
He led US to the lake, where we saw
sight that l shall never forget. In a
space where the wind had blown the
snow from the ice flock OF seven deer
had been cornered by pack of five
wolves. The deer couldn't get out on
account of the deep snow. and the
wolves had killed three of them when
we got there. While we were blazing
away at the brutes the crow flew over
head and shouted his approval. We
killed the whole pack, and Abe felt so
good that he rolled over on the crust
several times.
One day In the spring the crow saw
a fisher catch a rabbit and carry it to a
hole in Eastwood tree, thirty feet frum
the ground. NY brother and | were
chopping near by, and Abe squalled
around till he attracted our attention
when he flew up to the hole where the
fisher skipped out and ran up hem
lock tree to where the leaves were so
thick we couldn't see it. Abe flew up,
alighted above the fisher and began to
squall, and squirting through the foliage
below him could see enough of the
fisher to fire at. banged away, and
down came Mr.. Fisher with bullet in
his head. Abe fairly laughed when the
fisher tumbled.
One morning found six pullets on
the floor Of the hen shanty. A mink
had killed them, and that night l set
two steel traps and put one of the
| pullets between. In the morning a
mink had its fore feet in one of the
traps and one of its hind feet in the
other. Abe tagged me in, and when
he saw the mink struggling to get out
he ran up In front of 1t and began to
yell in its face. | let the crow torment
it, and while my back was turned the
mink caught Abe by the neck and bit
him so hard that he died in few
minutes.
| All AQ0IIT EIRIC