Democratic Sentinel, Volume 9, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1885 — CLEVER CROWS. [ARTICLE]

CLEVER CROWS.

Some Curious Stories from “Unbeaten Tracks in Japan.” While treading ‘Unbeaten tracks in Japan,’||Misß Bird found the silence broken in many places by the discordant notes of thousands of crows, who were both sagacious and impudent. She says: ‘Five of them were so impudent as to alight on two of my horses and so be ferried across the Yurapugawa. Tn the inn at garden Mori I saw a dog eating a piece of carrion in the presence of several of these covetous birds. They evidently said a good deal to each other on the übject, and now and then one or two of them

tried to pull the meat away from him, which he resented. ‘At last a big, strong crow succeeded in tearing off a piece, with which he returned to the pine where the others were congregated. ‘After much earnest speech, they all surrounded the dog, and the leading bird dexterously dropped the small piece of meat within reach of his mouth. He immediately snapped at it, letting go the big piece unwisely for a second, on which two of the crows flew away with it to the pine, and with much fluttering and hilarity they all ate, or rather gorged it, the deceived dog looking vacant and bewfldered for a moment, after which he sat under the tree and barked at them inanely. “A gentleman told me that he saw a dog holding a piece of meat in like manner in the presence of three crows, whieh also vainly tried to tear it from him. “After a consultation they separated, two going as near as they dared to the meat, while the third gave the tail a bite sharp enough to make the dog turn round with a squeal, on which the other villains seized the meat, and the three fed triumphantly upon it on the top of a wall. “Ih many places they are so aggressive as to destroy crops unless they are protected by netting.— They assemble on the sore backs of horses and pick them into holes, and are mischievous in many ways. “They are very late in going to roost, and are early astir in the morning, and are so bold that they often came ‘with many a stately flirt and flutter’ into the veranda where I was sitting. “I never watched an assemblage of them for any length of time without being convinced that there was a Nestor among them to lead their movements. “Along the seashore they are pretty amusing, for they ‘take the air’ in the evening, ’seated on the sandbanks facing the wind, with their mouths open.”