The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-07-21
TRAITS OF THE CROW.
EASILY SHOT WHEN ONCE TIT FIR
 LEADER IS KILLED.

No bird is better known to the 1drln- CT than the common American crow. No bird is so detested, but on the other hand none is more requently tanned
 An old farmer out near Chatham, N. J., who has hunted crows for more than forty years, describes then as re- markable mixtures of intelligence and stupidity.
 "Each flock of crows has its king or leader whom they must obey implicitly and without whom they become utterly demoralized and seem unable to act for themselves" he says. If you want to destroy a whole flock of crows the first thing to aim at is to kill the king.
 T remember when I was a small boy an uncle of mine planted a large field of corn, which a flock of crows instantly selected as a feeding ground. For a long time they set at defiance all efforts to disperse them, The king crow sat upon a tall tree, from Which he surveyed the country for a great dis tance. As soon as my uncle or his men came in sight he would sound the signal of alarm, and he and all his fol- lowers would take flight; but no soon- CT were the men too far away to shoot than the king would make the fact know, and the entire flock would re turn. After wasting quantity of am munition and the greater part of a morning without shooting even one of the rascals, my uncle hunted me up,
 Steve, he said, you're pretty good with gun. Now I'll tell you what I'll give you dollar for every crow you kill in that field of mine.
 T suppose he thought that on the chance of earning a dollar I would spend the next day or two chasing crows off his corn. Well, I didn't say anything l took my gun and started off that afternoon. There were the crows at work in the field and the king on the tall tree.
 He caught sight of me as I came over the top of the hill, and gave the signal. I went on down the road, hid in some bushes just across from the field, and waited for more than an hour. but the crows seemed to have gone for the day. I decided to give it up till the next morning and started back up the road Just as I dis appeared over the top of the hill heard a loud cav and turning, beheld those crows coming in swarm to set tie on the field. Several times l tried to steal up the road on them, but 1t was no use. Then I resorted to strategy.
 T went up the mn and quite a piece down the other side. Then, when heard the king crow give the signal to return, I slipped behind the bushes by the roadside and succeeded in creeping all the way back without his catch ing sight of me, picked him off easily and as they did not hear him give the signal of alarm the other crows went on feeding until l had shot several of them.
 Then I took the body of the king crow, tied it to that of q large hawk which had shot on my way there, and tossed them into the middle of field The crow is the most curious bird on earth. The whole flock came swoop- ing down to solve the mystery of a crow and hawk lying there together. I shot and shot into their midst, but they never seemed to learn.
 When all my shot was exhausted I went over to my uncle's and asked him to go see how much he owed me. He went quickly enough, and counted nine .ty-seven crows.
 After while he came back to the house with an awful sober face.
 " Steve, he said, I guess I'll have to ask you to let me off a part of that bargain we made I didn't calculate exactly how good with gun you are
 Well, I'll tell you, uncle I said. I've had lot of sport this afternoon and if you'll give me back the dollar spent on the shot to Kill those crows I guess it will be all right,
 "I've never seen a dollar come out of a mans pocket as quick as that one did.
 "Often since I've used the body of a dead hawk to bring a crowd of crows within shooting distance, and I've never known 1t to fail. Somehow it is an object which seems to have a pecu- liar fascination for them, driving them clear out of their senses with curiosity.
 Some farmers exterminate whole flocks of crows at once by sticking a stuffed owl up in a tree near where they congregate. All crows, you know, love to tease an owl. If crows are suc- cessfully decoyed by a stuffed owl practically the whole flock may be wiped out before they will abandon their fun. They will retun again and again to tease the bird, in spite of the fact that some of their number are shot each time"
 Samuel w. Quirk, Q farmer of Rynexs Corners, N Y, has learned to have a friendly feeling for all crows of de voted pet in one of the tribe.
 T do not think crows are so fond of corn as some farmers imagine" he told the writer "The old birds feed the young on worms, bugs and insects. It is such food they are after when they go into the freshly titled fields. In hunting for these they naturally damage the corn to q certain extent. My pet would not touch grain of any kind. think he would have starved before eating corn.
 T shed tears when I lost that bird. I called him Jackey. I got him by climbing to the top of tall pine tree and carrying him down in my arms. I put him in a box about two feet square, with a sieve across the front. After keeping him there about one