Evening star., 1947-03-28
This and That
BIZ Charles E. 'Traceuell.
"JONQUIL STREET,

Dear Sir:
Sometime soon / hope you will give
some general information in your COL
umn about the crow, including: How
long does it take crow eggs to hatch?
How long does it take newly Matched
crows to become fledglings? How fast
does crow fly? Also what would a
crow do to entertain people?
VERY truly yours, L. E. c."
~
History of the American crow shows
the probable history of the startling and
the present campaign against it.
Although the crow has been unpro-
tected, all States allowing it to be shot,
today its numbers are more than ever.
1t is regarded by ornithologists as per-
haps the most successful bird, every
thing taken into consideration.
Like all black creatures, it manages
to combine strength with sagacity, and
real sense of humor.
The startling. too. will come up as
winner, no matter how cruel the CAM
paign against it,
In the meantime, unfortunately, If
restrictions are removed, no doubt some
persons will shoot other songbirds, as
well as starlings. This, at least, is the
fear of bird-minded people
Unprotected, the mighty crow still flies
the airWays, and at times congregates
in great hosts.
In these crow conventions, as they are
sometimes called, the birds perch and
talk" to each other.
Then the familiar cav becomes a real
language, which, if it cannot be under
stood by human listeners, at least seems
to make sense to the crows themselves
There are many traditions about
crows, one that they hold courts and
sentence culprits to death and carry out
the executions While there is some
doubt about all this, reliable and trained
observers have seen several crows at
tack another in the air and kill it before
it hit the ground.
1t takes a crow IA days to hatch out
its eggs and about three weeks for the
f1edglings to become real crows.
The baby birds eat 10 ounces of food
a day; in the three weeks, they consume
13 pounds Of grains, flesh of songbirds
and eggs brought them by their parents,
and grain.
Crows nest in March, April and May.
Older specimens use old nests, but
young crows in the first mating season
build new ones.
All crows have such thieving propen-
sites that even in nest building one
must stand guard to keep others from
stealing the sticks used.
The male bird carries food to the
mother bird.
Grows fly at speed of 20 to 30 miles
ordinarily, but when alarmed or chased
can work up to As miles per hour
Ducks and geese ordinarily fly at a
speed OF DO to so miles an hour. Some
times much. faster.
Ravens, shrikes, herons, hawks and
horned larks make from % to % miles,
but in the kill 60 considerably faster.
A duck hawk was estimated to make
l65 miles per hour in a dive Swifts
were clocked from plane at 68 miles
per hour, but evidently went much
faster, since they flew around plane
making that speed.
The crow makes an entertaining pet,
but there is no necessity for splitting
the tongue to induce it to talk. as peo-
pie once thought.
1t has been proved that crows talk as
well with tongue whole.
They need a great deal of food in
captivity.
Perhaps the most comical thing they
do is steal and hide such small articles
as bottle caps, buttons, scissors, etc.
These they secrete in hideout, or even
bury. Sometimes they recover them,
and carry them to new place
Although crows feed few songbirds
and their eggs to their young, the num-
Der of birds thus lost Is comparatively
small. everything considered. The big
birds-20 inches long-actually help
farmers by cleaning up vermin. But try
and tell Q farmer that! y