Idaho semi-weekly world., 1893-05-09
EXPLOITS OF A CROW.
VERY CLEVER INDEED, BUT HE MET
AN UNTlMELy DEATH.

Anecdotes by Man Who Saw Some
Strange Things Even Though He Had a
Gun-The Crow Disiiked Certain Kinds
Of Animals-He Was Great Hunter.
! "When this region was nearly all
woods sixty years ago." said an old
resident of Bell Meadow, Il picked a
young crow out of the mud in Tamarack
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 all tame crows, Abe
was mischievous and inquisitive There
was a knothole in the floor of our cistern,
+ and the crow couldn't find out what was
under it, although he tried very hard.
| "Seyeral times q day Abe flew down
70 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 peb-
BILE strike the water, and the noise out
OF his sight excited his curiosity SO much
that he dropped half bushel of pebbles
into the cistern before he gave up.
ABE accompanied me on all my hunt
ing trips in the fall and winter, and he
saw me kill five or six wolves, half a
dozen wildcats ard several deer. Tho
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
ous One afternoon, the summer that
he was year old, Abe flew into our
little clearing and cawed and fiuttered
about as If he wanted me to leave my
work.
II knew the crow had seen something
that dlspleased him, and so picked up
two rifles and told him to go ahead, Just to
see what he would do. He went squali-
ing through the air toward 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 doe they had pounced 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 were three feet
and half of snow on the level, and we
had to wear snowshoes to get around.
While 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 something, and he
perched ON the log and went to fiapping
his wings and dancing up and down. |
understood him well enough to know
that he had seen something 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, shoul-
dered 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 ! 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 few overhead and
shouted his approval We killed the
whole pack, and Abe felt SO good that
he rolled over on the crust several times.
Zone day in the spring the crow saw
a fisher catch a rabbit and carry it to a
hole in a Eastwood tree, thirty feet from
the ground. My brother and | were
ehopping near by, and Abe squalled
around till he attracted our atten-
tion, when he flew up to the hole
where the fisher was concealed. We
chopped the basswood down, and the
fisher skipped out and ran up a hemlock
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
l could see enough of the fisher to fire at
banged away, and down came Mr.
Fisher with n bullet in his head. Abe
fairly laughed when the fisher tumbled.
Zone morning found six pnllets on
the floor of the hen shanty A mink had |
killed them, and that night | set two |
steel traps and put one of the pullets be- |
tween. In the morning a mink had its
fore feet in one of the traps and one of |
Its bind feet i'll the other. Abe tagged |
me in, and when he saw the mink strug-
Cling to get out he ran up in front of it
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. Cor. New York Tribune.