The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1893-02-16
EXPLOITS OF A TAME GROW.


Man Who Saw Strange Things, Even
/ Though He Had "A Gun.
when this region was nearly all
woods, sixty years ago." said an old
resident of Bell Meadow, Pa, 81 picked
ayoung crow out of the mud in Tama-
| rick swamp, where he had tumbled out
O the nest before he was old enough to
| f.. named him Abe and tanned him,
and he developed into the brightest
BIRD / ever saw. Like all tame crows;
APE was mischievous and inquisitlve.
there was a knot hole in the floor of
oar cistern, and the crow couldn't find
oit what was under it, although he
tied very hard. Several times day
Abe few down to the creek, hunted up
apcbbte and carried it in his bill to the
flor OF the cistern, where he dropped it
trough the knot hole. The instant he
1T the pebble drop he would put his
ear close to the hole and listen. He
Guild hear the pebble strike the water,
aid the noise out of his sight excited
hS curiosity so much that he dropped a
half bushel of pebbles in the cistern
bdore he gave up
Abe accompanied me ON all my
limiting trips in tho fall and winter,
AID he saw me kill five or six wolves,
hlf dozen wildcats and several deer
Tie woods were full of deer, and there
here 40 many wolves that we couldn't
h1aap any sheep. Abe took great hls-
'ihF TO deer and rabbits, but he hated
wolves and wildcats, seeming TO under
stand that they were destructive and
dangerous One afternoon, the summer
that he was year old, Abe flew into
our little clearing and cawed and fut-
tered about as IL he wanted me to leave
my work. / knew the crow had seen
something that displeased him, and so
] picked up two rifles and told him to
go ahead, just to see what he would do.
lie went squalling through the air to-
ward Bell Meadow Brook, and when he
alighted on a 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 bounced on and pulled down.
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 was three
feet and half of snow on the level
and we had to wear snowshocs to get
around. While l was splitting wood
near the house one cold morning the
crow came sailing and squalling 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 and dancing
up and down. | understood him we'll
enough to know that he had seen some
thing that he didn't like the looks Of
up in the woods toward the lake. So
and my brother and cousin put on our
snowshoes, shouldercd five loaded rifles
and started into the woods, Abe lead
ing the way and yelling He led us
to the lake, where we saw a sight that
l shall never forget. In space where
the wind had blown the snow from the
ice flock of seven deer had been cor
nered by a 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 overhead 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
fisher catch rabbit and carry it to
hole in Eastwood tree, thirty feet from
the ground. MY brother and were
chopping near by, aud Abe squalled
around till he attracted our attention,
when he flew up to the hole where the
fisher was concealed. We chopped the
Eastwood down and the fisher skipped
out and ran up hemlock tree to where
the leaves were SO thick we couldn'ts see
it. Abe flew up, alighted above the
fisher and began to squall, and, squint-
ing through the foliage below him, l
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.
Zone morning found six pullets dead
on the floor of the hen shanty. A mink
had killed them, and that night | set
two steel traps and put one of the pull.
lets 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 mp in
front of it and began to yell in it's face.
l let the crow torment it, and while my
back wa turned the mink caught Abe
by the neck and bit him so hard that he
died in few minutes N. Y. Tribune.