The Somerset reporter. [volume] (Skowhegan, Me.) 1868-1909, 1907-01-10
How to get a Shot ut the Crow.
Kill;the King Crow and the Rest of the
Flock VIII He at Your Mercy

KiII,the King Crow and the Rest of the
Flock VIII He at Your Mercy.
No bird is better known to the farmer
than the common American crow. No
bird ia so detested, but, on the other
hand. none is more frequently tanned.
An old farmer out near nathan, N. j.,
who has hunted crows for more than 40
years, describes them as remarkable
mixtures of intelligence and stupidity.
each flock of crows has its king or
leader, whom the rest obey implicitly
and without whom they become utterly
demoral zed and seem unable to act for
themselves he says. If you want to
destroy a whole flock of Gro VIZ. the first
thing To aim at is to kill the king.
81 remember when | was Il small boy
an uncle of mine planted large field ut
corn, which a flock of crows instantly
10 ected as "A feeding ground. For long
time they set at defiance all our efforts
to dispense them. The king crow sat
upon tall tree, from which be surveyed
the country for great distance AS
soon as my uncle or his men came in
BlRDt no WOulu BDuuu lIb biRudt ia DIAL III
and he ana all his 70 lowers would take
flight; but no sooner we're 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 of 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 III tell you what-Pn
give you dollar for every crow you kill
in that field of mine
II suppose he thought that, on the
chance of earning dollar, | would
spend the next day or two chasing crows
off his corn. Well. | didn't say any
thing. took my gun and started off
that afternoon. There were the crows
at work in the field and the king on the
tall tree
"Hs caught sight of me as | came
over the top of the hill, and gave the
signal. | went on down the road, hid
10 some bushes just across from the field
and waited for more than an hour, but
the crows seemed to have gone for the
day | decided to give it up till the
next morning, and started back up the
road. Just as | disappearing over the
top of the hill heard a loud cav and,
turning, beheld those crows coming in a
swarm to settle on the field Several
times | tried to steal up the road on
them, but 1t was no use. Then | resor-
tod to strategy
II went up the hill aud quite piece
down the other side Then, when
heard the king crow give the signal to
return, | slipped behind the bushes by
the roadside and succe eded in creeping
all the way back without his catching
sight of me. picked him off easily and
as they did not hear him give the signal
of alarm the other crows went on feed
ing until | had shot several of them
Then | took the body of the king
crow, tied it to that of large hawk
which had shot on my way there, and
tossed them into the middle of the field
The crow is the most curious bird on
earth. The whole flock came swooping
down to solve the mystery of crow and
hawk lying there together. | shot and
shot into theii mist but they never seem
ed TO learn.
when all my shot was exhausted
went over to my uncle's and asked him
to go see how much he owed me. He
went quickly enough, and counted 81
crows.
After while he came back to the
house with an awful sober face.
"Sieve," he said. guess I'll have to
ask you to let nae off a part of that bar
gain we made. | dicn't calculate exact
ly how good with a gun you are
We'll, I'll tell you, UNCLE" | said,
1--WE had lot of sport this afternoon
and il youth give me back the dollar
spent ON the shot to kill those crows |
guess it will be all right"
i've never seen 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 it to fail Somehow 1t is an OBJ
/ ject which seems to have a peculiar fas-
oination for them. driving them clear
out of their senses with curiosity.
"Some farmers exterminate whole
hocks Of crows at once by sticking a
stuffed owl up tree near where they
congregate. All crows. you know, love
to tease an owl. IL crows are success
fully deooyed nv stuffed owl practi-
cally the whole flock may be wiped out
before they will abandon 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