Evening star., 1948-06-17
This and That
BIZ Charles E. Trdce1oelI

Templeton Jones, man about town, is not
interested in birds.
Sometimes, though when he meets us, he
likes to ask some such simple question as,
What is the bird that goes cav, cav cave"
We suspect that he is joking, but always re-
ply with straight face.
That bird" comes the answer, "is crow"
Too few crows come to earth in local gar
dens. One may believe that there are few
more interesting creatures on the wing.
Large, beautiful, wise and witty is America S
crow.
He is capable to degree not only of sus-
tanned and graceful fight, but he has a genuine
sense of humor.
Some experts say he even holds conventions,
and at times courts of justice, although this
latter is disputed by other experts.
Crows have sat in trees not too high above
our own feeding stations, but never once in 18
years in nearby Maryland has one of the
big black fellows come to earth.
Probably whole corn will do it, Must try
that sometime.
friend says: "Have you tried oatmeal? Cat
birds are very fond of it."
Catbirds like raisins better, but whole oat-
meal would furnish plenty of vitamin and a
good supply of minerals for this, one of the
best of birds
The catbird is one of our tamest, too. He
comes to hand, if one is patient.
The crow is classed a songbird
This always sounds strange to those who do
not know that songbird is simply classif1-
cation of those birds with certain throat
muscles.
Any bird which has such muscles is called
'songbird''
So our big, glistening crow gets into won-
derful group. His voice, after all, is not bad,
rather musical if the listener is not too critical
He can vary it, from the simple cav" every
one knows, to "ho, no. in questioning, laugh
ing manner
In between, he makes strange sounds. all
variations on his standard call. He also has q
little warbe, seldom heard.
He needs no split tongue, as people used to
think to be trained to talk.
In the old days it was country superstition
that the tongue must be cut
Today scientists have discovered that it is
intelligence, not a tongue operation that does
the trick.
The crow may be taught to speak few
words of our tongue even better with his
tongue whole.
He is smart.
He knows thing or two, when to leave a
"scarecrow' alone, when to drop down for food,
when to laugh in derision.
It generally is believed that the "crow con-
ventions.' or courts, are possible but not very
probable.
That one bird is tried, sentenced to death,
and killed now is believed to be rather the re-
suit of some taint in the bird, or different odor
than the result of any legal proceedings.
Almost 20 inches long, and heavy, the Ameri-
can crow even knows when corn has the most
vitamins in it!
In the process of germination or sprouting
the most vitamin content is reached, and that
is lust when Old Man Crow likes his corn the
best of all.
He also will eat chickens, nesting birds, toads
salamanders, small snakes, and insects. Prob
ably he is not given enough credit for his insect
destruction.
When young poultry and newly planted corn
are protected from him, he is thrown back on
insects. and then does good job
Brightly colored and polished metal objects
appeal greatly to crows. who steal them and
hide them away just what they intend doing
with them they evidently do not know. But
the same may be said Of human beings.