Crow

One of the most common native birds throughout North America is the ordinary crow. They are of large size, shining black plumage.

If taken from the nest and reared by hand it is easily domesticated. It does not learn to talk as well as its cousin, the raven. It becomes a regular comedian, however full of mischievous pranks and amusing tricks. There are many instances on record of their learning to talk fairly well, but their memory seems to be short.

They are adept thieves and delight in stealing and hiding away trinkets, jewelry, and any shining objects as. well as food. They will readily become friendly with the various members of the family. They always know when meal time comes and eat a great variety of food, both animal and vegetable. It is really strange that more of them are not kept in captivity as they are so commonly found wild in every locality throughout the country.

The possession of human speech is said to have saved the life of a tame crow that had wandered from his master's house into a newly plowed field where a number of other crows were engaged in picking up grubs and worms. As soon as the wild crows saw the tame one they surrounded and attacked it, when the latter began at once using various sentences of the human language in such a vigorous way that it had the effect of putting its adversaries to flight.