The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-06-21
THE CROW IN WINTER.
Knowing "Critter" Able to Take Care
 of Himself.

Knowing "Critter' Able to Take Care
 of Himself.
 While other birds migrate from ne-
 cessity, the crow, think, does so from
 choice. He either goes or stays as he
 thinks fit.
 Among the intelligences of the feath-
 cred tribe, there are but few that can
 compare with that of "Corvus arneri-
 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 exterminated
 long ago, for every mans hand has
 been against him. To a sombre, bode- ful appearance he adds the character
 of thief, and then his voice!
 But really, after all, he is not so bad or undesirable as he is supposed to be, and, thanks to unprejudiced men of in- Iquiring, scientific minds, his good or useful qualities are now coming to be known But it is doubtful if the popular mind will ever completely overload the diversions and approximations which
 the ages have piles up in regard to him and his family.
 However, 70. americanus" doesn't care. He will 80 on living and being ltolerably happy, despite our enmity, an there are certainly no grounds for be- lieving that he is becoming scarcer in the land.
 l think I never saw so many crows ! o Iac 1rr 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 towards 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 out unarmed he can approach the marauders within a few yeards before they will stir; but no sooner does he appear with gun than they are up and away. Or, if he should try and steal on them along fence an alarmed "ker-aw, cawl" from a well posted sentinel will sound long before he gets within shot, and effectually frustratel his design.
 From the spring until the fall our sable friend has an easy life of it, from being abundant. And I do not think he considers the question of migration till the very last moment. Tnen he may de- eide to go or stay, as the signs which he knows so well appear to indicate Q mild or hard winter.
 I have seen it stated that all our crows q. e., the crows of this latitude) migrate in the fall, and that those we see in the depth of winter come from the further North. This may be genera | ly true, but it is not absolutely so, for a friend of mine who lives in Pennsy1- vania, tells me that a crow with a white feather in his tail, which was familiar to him during the summer, made his appearance several times dur- | ing the winter ct would seem, by the way, that the white feather in this in stance belied it's proverbial singnificanc l Whether, however, the crows we see in the depth of winter are our old fami- l liars of spring and summer, or 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 winters there are certain to be more or less prolonged periods of frost or snow. This is not so bad for little birds like the chicadees, who are satisfied with few crumbs or lavae but for the big, voracious birds 1 like the crows it is a Very serious mat ter indeed. Fortunately for them how- ever, they have an onpivorous appetite. A chance potato, or apple, a dead bird or rodent, fish cast up by the sea, or anything edible whatever-all Is well come. Then as foragers they are un- surpassed. With the first light of dawn they leave their roost, with clamorous cawlng, and scaater over the ! country. All day they ply their indus trious search. You will see them in ones, twos, or three, never in hurry, but al- ways vigilant. iwth one eye open as it were, for chance provender, and the other for some lurking enemy Tn very severe weather they will venture into 
 farmyards to forage. But warily do they move about, avoiding especially anything that looks like trap. Apro- pos, your correspondent, Mir Charles A Taft, notes that they would not go near the troughs which he erected for l the feeding of quail. Only rarely to we come across a dead crow, and then he 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 8 hundred) Tough, tough, he is, in sooth, and the popular | saying. TO eat crow" has most pointed significance.
 When day begins to decline, the var Iious members of the roost or rookery start for home. Not as in the spring, Ireferred to so felicitously by Tennyson l in his line, "The many wintered crow that leads the changing rookery home" lido they fly now, but silently, and, as a rule, singly-or one behing another, at a long distance. The sight of the dark solitary bird winging its flight over the desolate landscape has an affect which linus have been dear to the superatitious \