The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-01-03
THE cANNY CROW.

lies Not Only Long-Headed but Long Lived.
 While other birds migrate from ne- Icessity, the crow, think. does so from ichoice. He either goes or stays as lie thinks best.
 Among the intelligences of the feath- cred tribe, there are but few that can compare with that of Corvus Ameri- canus. Chapman says he can talk. But if he cannot talk, he can certainly think, and to some purpose. Were it not so, he would have been extermin- | lated long ago, for every man hand has been against him. To a sombre, bodeful appearance he adds the char acter of a thief, and then his voiee l think never saw so many crows around New York as I did last spring | in Flatlands during the preparations for sowing. The fields were literally half black with them. AS long as the ploughing merely was being done the attitude of the farmers toward them was one of friendly indifference; but the moment the seed was in the ground war was declared. But I would bet a dollar that not half a dozen crows were shot during the season. It must be terribly exasperating to farmer to find that when he goes unarmed he can approach the marauders within a few yards before they will stir; but no sooner does he appear with a gun than they are up and away. Or, if he should try to steal on them along a fence, an alarmed "ker-aw, caw" from a well posted sentinel will sound long before he gets within shot, and effectually frustrate his design.
 From the spring until the fall our sable friend has an easy life of it, food being abundant And I do not think that he considers the question of mi grafton till the very last moment Then he may decide to go or stay, as the signs which he knows so well ap- pear to indicate mild or hard winter.
 I have seen it stated that all crows G. e., the crows of this latitude) mi- grate in the fall, and that those we see in the depth Of winter come from fur ther north. This may be generally true, but it is not absolutely so, for friend of mine who lives in Pennsyl- vania tells me that crow with white feather in his tail, which was familiar to him during the summer, made his appearance several times during the winter.
 Whether, however, the crows we see in the depth of winter are our old fa- miliars of the spring and summer or strangers from the North, their work is cut out for them to keep the wolf from the door, For even in mild win ters there are certain to be more or less prolonged periods of frost and snow. This is not so bad for little birds like the chichadees, who are satisfied with few grubs or larvae, but for big voraoious birds like the crows it Is a very serious matted indeed Fortu- nately for them, however, they have an omniverous appetite. A chance potato, or apple, dead bird, or rodent, a fish cast up by the sea, or anything edible whatever-all is welcome. Then as foragers they are unsurpassed. With the first light of dawn they leave their roost, with clamorous cawing, and scatter over the country. All day they ply their industrious search. You will 1 see them in ones, or twos, or threes, never in hurry, but always vigilant, with one eye open, as it were, for chahce provender, and the other for some lurking enemy In very severe weather they will venture into farm yards for forage. But warily do they move about, avoiding especially any, thing that looks like trap.
 Only rarely do we come across a dead crow, and then he is pretty sure to be the victim of old age or disease (His normal age, by the way, is sup posed to be near hundred) Tough, tough he Is, in sooth and the popular saying. "To eat crow" has a most pointed significance.
 When day begins to decline the va rious members of the roost or rookery start for home. The wayfarer does not fly directly to his accustomed place of rest, but alights on some point of van tage, to rconnoitre presumably. Others do likewise, and when all are assembled Cf, perchance, all have escaped the haz ards of the day), at given signal from some recognized leader, they will arise circle noisly over the roost and grad ually drop down upon it. For a while the cawing Is kept up and then funeral silence succeeds. Every bird has found his perch, and ruffling his feathers, set tf~1x4