Evening star., 1950-01-17
This and That
By Charles E. TraceweH

Today's contributions from nature lovers
have to do with crow, hawk, and cat.
Not the three of them together just the
hawk and the crow, in battle to the death.
And finally. the cat. r-~
M. j. M. of Hyattsville writes: s4t,..
Recently while driving on the Bowie road
about mile south of Laurel. I noticed a
pair of birds locked in struggle on the side
of the road
"I Immediately saw that the pair was an
ordinary black crow and ashawk. Latter
identified as Cooper's hawk.
II stopped the car and ran back to the
struggling birds and as arrived both fell in
sheer exhausted heap.
"The hawk was dead and the crow so
badly mauled that he couldn't move. The
hawk, though quite dead, still retained hold
with his talons on the crows leg.
II picked up both the birds and wrapped
the crow in a rag I found in the back OF
the car, as he was rather bloody.
'T made close examination of the hawk
He had one small bloody place on the right
side of the head and his neck was broken.
1t looked to me as if the crow had taken
final swing with his beak and broken the
hawks neck.
'T brought the victorious crow home and
at this writing he is able to walk around
the basement. We will turn him loose as
soon as he can fly.
isn't it rather unusual for smaller bird
that isn't considered fighter to emerge
victor in fight to the death?
1.-THE hawk measured about feet
across the wings. I understand that crows
will attack a hawk when they outnumber
him, but have never heard of a crow kill
ing a hawk about three times as big as him
self In an individual struggle"
AS for the cat, E. j. writes about him or
her, saying tersely, "Cats are the only mem
bers of the animal kingdom that have no
body odor themselves"
She inclosed the following poem, in which
friends of cats will recognize their furry
companions.
CAT IN TRANSIT.
You shouldn't have doors
If you have q cat
Cats always have to be
Where they aren't at
They spend half their nine lives
Imperiously paving
Caterwauling dismally
| Rearing and clawing
| Until a door is opened.
| Then they stand and look
| Casing the prospect
| Like an over-cautious crook,
| Meditative, pensive,
| AS Lama in trance
While you itch to boot them
| In their furry pants.
Finally, deliberate,
| With cool languid grace
| They glide across the sill
| At snails mad pace,
| All but the tail
| But at last that's through the crack,
| And the door is slammed
And they're wailing to get back
| -EJ.
Crows are no towards, as NJ j. MS story
| proves.
Strong and powerful, canny and intel
ligent. crows are fine birds
| Their crime" If such it is, lis against GER
| tain interests Of mankind
In some places, bounty is paid for crows.
| The bounty system has its drawbacks,
| though. Some one is willing to pay for the
destruction Of everything. so that unlimited
bounties would result in the death of every
+ thing
| The crow is remarkably intelligent crea-
| ture, and if left to his own devices would not
do much harm. except in the minds of sinful
| men who do more harm in a day than q
whole flock Of crows could do in year.
| The house cat recently was taken as a
symbol of cleanliness by our electric light
company much to the qualification Of all
cats and their friends.