Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-16

borne the soft spring 8S9R34 NJ
breeze, caused nostrils to N~
expand as the stimulating
ozone quickened the pulses
of men made weary by the fierce race for wealth.
Bill Roddy the guide had made a kettleful OF
bean soup, which served in wooden bowls. A
pigeon pot-pe the piece de resistance, while
odoro1s Mocha added its benediction to the feast.
And the hunting party lay around the camp
fire on hemock boughs, smoking and looking at the
stars while envy and all unChartabeness tell from
them as app1e-blossoms fall from orchard.
Mother Nature had laid her benefcent hand on the
foreheads of the group, and a great content fell
upon the men, which was deepened by the lyric
tenor of Stenger he sang 20 Holy Peace, and
the cawing of a belated it flew over the
camp
There flies the wisest of American BIRDS" said
Crispel His scent is strong that of the con-
dor for he can recognize the odor of rare beefsteak
from distance of two miles. He knows the differ
ence between a man and scarecrow, Tor have seen
old crow sit on scarecrow S head and deliver
lecture natural history In oratory the crow can
give points to the cat-bird that great gossip of the
American woods Besides these indications of in
teigence the crow knows something about the
science of numbers "
chorus of expressions of disbelief arose, and
Hale said:
"Oh. come now. Crispen! We are willing to admit
that a crow has an excellent nose; that you can't
fool him with a scarecrow and that he can talk the
legs off iron pot; but when you say he count
well, willing to give you tar chance.
How many figures can crow counts"
Gentlemen replied Crspell, there seems to
be some doubt about the truth of my statements;
but in the Ramapo Mountains in New Jersey where
used to live, there flock of crows everyone of
which could count three.
A murmur of incredulity arose, which Crspell
Quoted with of his hand, and continued:
In the spring as the corn began to sprout
up through the ground, an army of crows flew down
in our corn-ield and pulled up the sprouts to get
at the kernels of corn beneath We tried in vain
to frighten them away with scarecrows and killed
many of them with poisoned meat. We also
learned by experience that crow could accurately
calculate the distance that a shotgun
carry a load of B B shot. Father driven to
despair by the terrible birds, which descended on
us like the locusts of Egypt But after weeks
hard thinking he devised scheme to get rid of
them.
You must understand that when ap-
peared with gun in his hand the crows would all
fly up in black cloud and settle in the high trees,
where they set up a cawing of dabol1c der1s1on We
built sort of shack in the middle of the field big
enough to conceal four men. When 1t finished
a man walked across the field to the shack in full
view of the crows He was followed a few minutes
later by another man, and still the crows kept up
their cries of ridicue. The third man followed in
due time, and when the fourth had entered the
shack the still jawing away. One by
one, at brief intervals the then out of
the shack leaving the fourth man behind. When
the third man had disappeared convention
held among the crows which evidently resulted in
the conclusion that the coast was clear, for the
whole flock of two hundred
flew down into the corn-fied. -z
Then the fourth man pep = ~