Evening star., 1945-09-11
This and That
By Charles E. TracetpeU.

The cav of the crow is probably the
easiest Of all bird cries to initiate.
Cav, cav" he calls from the sky.
Cav, cav, caw!" scream the children
below.
1t is seldom that one of these big
fellows drops down to a suburban feed
ing station.
Occasionally Ii happens. and then
the crow is an interested spectator
rather than participant
The big bird perches to one side.
taking in the scene, watched carefully
by smaller birds.
The few times we have watched such
a scene we have seen no harm done
songbirds by the visitors.
They seem amused by the feasters,
but seeing no corn they do not Join
them.
The cav of crow is a lonesome
sound. almost rivaling that of a loco
motive.
Each sound calls up inner pictures of
great space, and space is a lonesome
thing. For that reason, although thew
may not realize 1t, many persons re-
fuse to read stories about trips to the
planets. The mental picture is terrify-
ing to them.
No sailor to planets is the crow, but
he gets around just the same.
Crows and jays belong to the same
bird family. Each has a voice all its
own. Even James Russell Lowell, the
poet, saw fit to say, There are few
things more melodious that his cav of a.
clear winter morning as it drops to you
uttered through five hundred fathoms
OF crisp blue air"
mat is an interesting sentence. not
only because 1t is a poets estimate of a
cry which some people call ugly. but
also because 1t shows how words drop
out OF ordinary use. We no longer would
say of clear morning." but simply
on clear morning. We ordinarily
would not speak of fathoms, but when
Lowell wrote, New England people were
more sensitive to nautical terms.
Lowell being poet, there was extra
sense IN his picturing the sky as a sea
and the crow swimming therein.
Many persons regard the crow As
americas best-known bird. It Ia in
telligent, as is the jay, and also nos.
sesses that birds sense of humor.
Crows, like starlings. put out sen.
tlnels to keep watch and issue warn
lngs, but how the latter are conveved
Is matter of some mystery. Observers
claim that it is done by radio waves
which seems stretching 1t pretty far
But 1t is fact that often a band of
crows or starlings, seen approaching
Will suddenly veer away, as if warned /
and then the observer, on approaching
the place, will see a lone bird perched
high In tree.
We have often watched starlings
scout food place. First one bird viii
drop down, then fly up to a perch in q
tree. Close watching shows no so,,nd
MADE, or any movement, but within
two to five minutes, here come the
other members of the band. On account
OF many trees, 1t would have been i'm
possible Tor them to have seen the SEN
tinel.
Both crows and starlings are capable
of making many strange and unusual
sounds. The blue jay, of course, Is
famous for the noises he makes.
II LIS not usually realized that the
crow Is scientifically held to be song
bird, on account of the formation and
number of his throat muscles. AS a
singing bird, 1t must be admitted. he
cannot rival the mockingbird, thrush
or any OF our other sweet singers. Yet
he has musical little warble which
may be heard best when the creature
is by itself.
AS to whether crows hold trials and
condemn and execute criminal crows
there is little expert opinion In the al
hrmative, although many persons have
witnessed scenes which appeared to be
such.
The crow sometimes kills youna
birds, and will eat young poultry il left
unprotected, but on the whole its food
habits are helpful to man, rather than
the reverse, provided newly planted
corn is protected from it. The liking
Of crows for corn in termination shows
the intelligence Of the bird, since such
terminated corn is filled with sugars
and vitamins Crows may thus be re-
garded as one of the discoverers Of
vitamin therapy.