Arizona republican., 1899-02-03
A SEWING CROW.
An Industrious and Amusing Feath-
 cred Pet From Venezuela.


 
 Perhaps of all my birds the one I called the sewing crow was the most amusing. It vas a glossy black bird about the size of a thrush, with pale yellow tail and wing feathers, and curi- ous light blue eyes with very blue rims. It was brought from Venezuela, and it's local Spanish name means the rice bird" but it never specially affected rice or food, preferring fruit and meal worms. 1 had several of these crows 1 but one was particularly tame and rambled about the house seeking for sewing materials. I found it once or twice inside large work bag full of crewels, where it had gore in search of gay threads, with which it usad to decorate the wire walls of an empty cage kept in the veranda outside my own sitting room. The extraordinary patience and ingenuity of that bird in passing the wool through the meshes of the wire can hardly be described I suppose it was a reminiscance of nest building, because it always worked harder in the spTingtime. It had a great friend in a little "moriche black and yellow also, but of more slende- build, and with a very sweet whistle The moriche," too, was perfectly tame l was very comic to watch it's efforts at learning embroidery from it's f.iend It arrived at last at some sort of cage dec oration, but quite different from that of the crow who evidently GiSapprOved of it, and often Tuthlessly pulled the work of labOriOuS morning on the 'mOriche'S" part to pieces. Now the tmOriche" knew better than to touch the crows work, though he often ap- peared to carefully examine it.
 One day the crow must have Dur- suaded the "mOriche'' to help him to roll and drag 9 reel of coarse white cotton from the corridor Of the work room across the floor of my sitting room into the veranda. 1 saw them doing this more than once, and had unintentiOnally interfered with the crows plans by picking up the reel and returning it to the maids work basket. However, one afternoon the crow got rid of me entirely. and on my return from long expedition I found the crow and the ''moriche" just going to roost in the empty cage, which was really only kept there for them to play in. 1 then perceived what the | reel of cotton, which was again lying | on the veranda floor, had been wanted i for. The crow had sewn a straw arm | chair with an open-patterned seat se- curely to the cage by nine very long | and was sleepilY cOntemplat- i ing the work with great satisfaction It was quite easy to see how it had | managed, once start was made with | the cotton, but must have entailed | a great deal of~fying in and out with the end of cotton, for it had not been broken off Of course, I left the chair | in it's place, and it remained untouched i for some months, but I always had to | use it myself, lest any one should | move it too roughly, and so break the strands which had cost my little bird so much labor and trouble Cornhill Magazine.
 Women love to get together and gossip quietly about one another" he in an irritating way.
 *'Yes," she answered; it is very seI- dom that they take the trouble to call names in official doounents and the n r.c1-c h iY1C Ctnn Star