THE CROW.

The common Crow is the representative in America of the European Rook, resembling it in many of its habits. In Europe, where land is more valuable than in this country, and where agriculture is carried on with an amount of skill that would astonish an American, the people are not so jealous of the birds. In Great Britain, rookeries are permanent establishments; and the Rooks, notwithstanding the mischief they do, are protected on account of their services to agriculture. The farmers of Europe, having learned by experience that without the aid of mischievous birds their crops would be sacrificed to the more destructive insect race, forgive them their trespasses as we forgive the trespasses of cats and dogs, who in the aggregate are vastly more destructive than birds. The respect shown to birds by any people seems to bear a certain ratio to the antiquity of the nation. Hence the sacredness with which they are regarded in Japan, where the population is so dense that the inhabitants would not consent to divide the products of their fields with the feathered race unless their usefulness had been demonstrated.

The Crow is one of the most unfortunate of birds in all his relations to man; for by the public he is regarded with hatred, and every man's hand is against him. He is protected neither by custom nor by superstition; the sentimentalist cares nothing for him as a subject of romance, and the utilitarian is blind to his services as a scavenger. The farmer considers him as the very ringleader of mischief, and uses all the means he can invent for his destruction; the friend of the singing-birds bears him a grudge as the destroyer of their eggs and their young; and even the moralist is disposed to condemn him for his cunning and dissimulation.

Hence he is everywhere hunted and persecuted, and the expedients used for his destruction are numerous and revolting to the sensibility. He is outlawed by legislative bodies; he is hunted with the gun; he is caught in crow-nets; he is hoodwinked with bits of paper smeared with birdlime, to which he is attracted by means of a bait; he is poisoned with grain steeped in hellebore and strychnine; the reeds in which he roosts are treacherously set on fire; he is pinioned by his wings, and placed on his back, and made to grapple his companions who come to his rescue. Like an infidel, he is not allowed the benefit of truth to save his reputation; and children, after receiving lessons of humanity, are taught to regard the Crow as an unworthy subject, if they were to carry the precepts taught them into practice. Every government has set a price upon his head, and public sentiment holds him up to execration.

As an apology for these atrocities his persecutors enumerate a long catalogue of misdemeanors of which he is guilty. He pillages the cornfields and pulls up the young shoots of maize to obtain the kernels attached to their roots. He destroys the eggs and young of harmless birds which are our favorites; he purloins fruit from the garden and orchard, and carries off young ducks and chickens from the farm-yard. Beside his mischievous propensities and his habits of thieving, he is accused of deceit and of a depraved disposition. He who would plead for the Crow will not deny the general truth of these accusations, but, on the other hand, would enumerate certain special benefits which he confers upon man.

In the list of services performed by this bird we find many details that should lead us to pause before we consent to his destruction. He consumes vast quantities of grubs, worms, and noxious vermin; he is a valuable scavenger, clearing the land of offensive masses of decaying

animal substances; he hunts the grass-fields and pulls out and devours various cutworms and caterpillars, wherever he perceives the marks of their presence as evinced by the wilted stalks; he destroys mice, young rats, and lizards and the smaller serpents; and, lastly, he is a volunteer sentinel upon the farm and drives the Hawk from its enclosures. It is chiefly during seed-time and harvest that the depredations of the Crow are committed. During the remainder of the year his acts are all benefits, and so highly are his services appreciated by those who have written on birds that there is hardly an ornithologist that does not plead for his protection.

Let us turn our attention for a moment to his moral qualities. In vain is he condemned for cunning when without this quality he could not live. His wariness is a virtue, and, surrounded as he is by all kinds of perils, it is his principal means of self-preservation. He has no system of faith and no creed to which he is under obligations to offer himself as a martyr. His cunning is his armor; and I am persuaded that the persecutions which he has always suffered have caused the development of an amount of intelligence that elevates him many degrees above the majority of the feathered race. Hence there are few birds that equal the Crow in sagacity. He observes many things that could be understood, it would seem, only by human intelligence. He judges with accuracy from the deportment of the person approaching him, if he is prepared to do him an injury, and seems to pay no regard to one who is strolling the fields in search. of flowers or for recreation. On such occasions you may come so near him as to observe his manners and even to note the varying shades of his plumage. But in vain does the gunner endeavor to approach him. So sure is he to fly at the right moment for his safety that one might suppose he could measure the distance of gunshot.

The cawing of the Crow seems to me unlike any other sound in nature. It is not melodious, though less harsh than that of the Jay. It is said that when domesticated he is capable of imitating human speech, though he cannot sing. But Esop mistook the character of this bird when he represented him as the dupe of the fox, who gained the bit of cheese he carried in his mouth by persuading him to exhibit his musical powers. The Crow could not be fooled by any such appeals to his vanity.

The Crow is justly regarded as a homely bird; yet he is not without beauty. His coat of glossy black with violet reflections, his dark eyes and sagacious expression of countenance, his stately and graceful gait, and his steady and equable flight, all give him a proud and dignified appearance. The Crow and the Raven have always been celebrated for their gravity, a character that seems to be caused by their black, sacerdotal vesture and by certain peculiar manifestations of intelligence in their ways and general deportment. Indeed, any one who should watch the motions of the Crow for five minutes, when he is stalking alone in the field or when he is careering with his fellows around some tall tree in the forest, would not fail to see that he deserves to be called a grave bird.

Setting aside all considerations of the services rendered by the Crow to agriculture, I esteem him for certain qualities which are agreeably associated with the charms of nature. It is not the singing-birds alone that contribute by their voices to gladden the husbandman and cheer the solitary traveller. The crowing of the cock at the break of day is as joyful a sound, though unmusical, as the voice of the Robin, who chants his lay at the same early hour. To me the cawing of the Crow is cheering and delightful, and it is heard long before the generality of birds have left their perch.