Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1906-09-04
QUEER TRAITS OF THE CROW.
Easily Shot When Once Their Leader
Is Killed.

farmer than the common American
crow. No bird is so detested, but on
the other hand none is more fire.
quently tanned.
An old farmer out near Chatham,
n. j., who has hunted crows for more
than forty years, describes them as
remarkable mixtures of intelligence
and stupidity.
Each flock Of crows has its king
or leader whom the rest obey i'm
plicitly and without whom they be-
come 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.
81 remember when I was a small
boy an uncle of mine planted a large
field of corn, which flock of crows
instantly selected as 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 distance. AS soon as my
uncle or his men came in sight he
would sound the signal Of alarm, and
he and all his followers would take
flight; but no sooner were the men
too far away to shoot than the king
would make the fact known, and the
entire flock would return. After
wasting a quantity II ammunition
and the greater part of morning
without shooting even one Of the
rascals, my uncle hunted me up.
"'Steve,' he said, you're pretty
good with a gun. Now I'll tell you
what-I'll give you a dollar for ev-
cry crow you kill out in that field
of mine
'I suppose he thought that, on the
chance of earning a dollar, 1 would
spend the next day or two chasing
crows off his corn. Well, 1 didn't
say anything. I 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. 1 decided to give it
up till the next morning, and started
back up the road. Just as I disap-
peared over the top Of the hill heard
a loud cav and, turning, beheld those
crows coming in swarm to settle on
the field. Several times I tried to
steal up the road on them, but 1t was
no use. Then I resorted to strategy.
81 went up the hill and quite a
piece down the other side. Then,
when I 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 catching sight OF me. I picked
him off easily, and as they did not
hear him give the signal of alarm the
other crows went on feeding until I
had shot several of them.
"Then I took the body Of the king
crow, tied 1t TO that Of a large hawk
which I had shot on my way there,
and tossed them into the middle Of
the field. The crow is the most Curl
Gus bird on earth. The whole flock
came swooping down to solve the
mystery of a crow and hawk lying
there together. 1 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 ninety-seyen crows.
After a while he came back to
the house with an awful sober face.
"'Steve,' he said L guess I'll have
to ask you to let me off a part Of that
bargain we made. I didn't calcu-
late exactly how good with a gun
you are
"'Well, I'll tell you, uncle said,
I've had a lot of sport this after
noon and If you'll give me back the
dollar I spent on shot to kill those
crows 1 guess it will be all right
I've never seen a dollar come out
of a mans pocket as quickly 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 it to fail. Some
how it Is an object which seems to
have a peculiar fascination for them,
driving them clear out Of their
senses with curiosity.
Some farmers exterminate whole
fiocks of crows at once by sticking
a stuffed owl up in a tree where
they congregate. All crows, you
know, like to tease an owl. If crows
are successfully decoyed by stuffed
owl practically the whole flock may
be wiped out before they will aban-
don their fun. They will return
again and again to tease the bird,
in spite of the fact that some Of their
number are shot each time.
Samuel w. Quick, farmer Of
Rynex Corners, N. Y, has learned to
have a friendly feeling for all crows,
because Of a devoted pet in one of
the tribes.
1T do not think crows are so fond
of corn as some farmers imagine
he told the writer. 'The old birds
feed their young on worms, bugs
and insects. 1t is such food they are
after when they go into the freshly
titled fields. In hunting for these
they naturally damage the corn to
a certain extent. My pet would not
touch grain of any kind. I think he
would have starved before eating
corn.
"I shed tears when 1 lost that
bird. 1 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 box about
two feet square, with a sieve across
the front. After keeping him there
about one week 1 let him out for a
Uar,y SOon he was so tame