The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-01-13
EXPLOITS OF A CROW,
VERY CLEVER INDEED, BUT ne NET
AN .iNTlMeLY DEATH.
Anecdotes nv n Man Who Saw some
Strange Things Even Though He Had a
Gun-The Crow DisIiked Certain Kinds

1865
Gun-The Crow DisIiked Certain Kinds
of Anin,aIs-IIo Was "a Great Hunter.
when this region was nearly all
woods sixty years ago. said an old
resident of Bell Meadow, II picked "a
young crow ont of the mud in Tamarack
swamp, where he had tumbled out of
the nest before he was old enough to fly.
l named him Abe and tanned him, and
he developed into the brightest bird l
ever saw. Like all tame crows, Abe
was mischievous and inquisitive. There
was a knothole in the fioor of our ~cistern,
and the crow couldn't find out what was
under 1t, although he tried very hard.
Several times a day Abe flew down
to the creek, hunted up a 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 peb-
bic strike the water, and the noise out
OF his sight excited his curiosity so much
that he dropped n half bushel of pebbles
into the cistern before he gave NJ.
ABE accompanied me on all my hunt
ing trips III the fall 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 Il great liking to
deer and rabbits, but lie hated wolves
II wildcats, seeming to understand
that they were destructive and danger
u One afternoon, the sulnmer that
he was a year old, Abe flew into our
little clearing and cawed and fiuttered
about as II lie wanted me to leave nv
work.
Il knew the crow had seen something
that dlspleased him, and 50 | picked up
two rifles and told him to go ahead, just to
see what he would do. He went suuall-
ing through the air toward Bell Meadow
brook, and when he alighted on a tree
he kept yelling and looking down in the
ravine. Hooked, too, little expecting to
see what did. A pair of wolves were
tearing at a doe they had pounced OH
and pulled down. l killed them bott
before they got three leaps from the doe.
and when Abe saw that they couldn't
HAO'S iV anu tIOdhtu us InOn1E
he was glad.
The next winter there were three feet
and Il half of snow on the level, and we
had to wear snowshoes to get around.
While l was splitting wood near the
house one cold morning the crow came
sailing and squalliug to the settlement
from the direction of Lake Henry. He
was excited about something, and no
perched on the log and Went to Tapping
his wings and dancing mp and down.
understood him well enough to know
that he had seen something that he
,"tnt Xix the looks of up in the woods
oSard the lake, 80 | and my brother
and cousin put on orr s~nowshoes, shoul-
icred five loaded rifles and started into
the woods, Abe leading the way and
yelling.
He led us 10 the lake, where we saw
a sight that | shall never forget. In
space where the wind had blown the
snow from the ice IL flock of seven deer
had been cornered by a pack Of five
wolves. The deer couldn't get out OH
account of the d~eepsnOw, 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
"noie PACK, anu Woe i"lt so good that
ut roi!ed over on tine crust several times.
'Ohe DAY III the SPRING the crow saw
a hsher ca'ctl Il rabbit aud carry it TO a
hoie III Il passWood tree, thirty feet from
the ground. NV brother and | Were
phpy,i,,r ,,m,, L.. ,,l Al
till he attracted orr attan-
ton, when he flew ", to the hole
where the fisher was concealed. W.
chopped the Eastwood down, and the
fisher skipped ont and ran up a helnlock
tree to where the leaves were 50 thick