32 Bird-Lore
“KG.” at which all the Crows rise and fly to the woods. Although the Crows do considerable damage to the farmer in various ways, they do great good in destroying the enemies of his crops.
The Crow is as great a thief as the Bluejay in stealing birds‘ eggs and young. Though it will ravage any small bird’s nest it can get at, the nest of the Robin, Wood Thrush, Catbird and Dove are the ones most often attacked. A curious thing about its egg-sucking is that it can pierce the egg with its bill and carry it away to some secluded spot to eat it.
In Pennsylvania its harsh Kn, K11, Kmava may be heard nearly all months of the year, but in the early spring it makes an effort to sing, making a noise similar to young Crows that have just left the nest. After the warm days Come in April, when nesting, in contrast to their noisy cawings earlier in the season, they are silent and but little seen in the open fields from then until their young are hatched. They fly low, flitting like silent, black shadows among the bare»branched trees. I have watched them carrying the sticks for their nests in their bills; some were very heavy but they did not seem to mind the weight, so busy and happy were they at their work, as they wound around among the trees to misr lead the observer as to their nesting place. The beech trees are most often selected for nesting in,—those that are scraggy and crotched with plenty of limbs to hide the nest. Although the nest is usually placed forty to sixty feet above the ground, I have seen them not more than twelve feet. The nest, a bulky structure, composed of about a peck of sticks, twigs, leaves and bark, is lined with horse-hair. The walls are often about five inches thick, one foot high and eight inches across. In this brush-heap the old mother Crow quietly sits from two to three weeks on eggs that vary considerably in size and color. The eggs, three to six in number, are about 136 inches in length by 1% inches in diameter. In color they are light greenish spotted with brown, black and purple.
When very young the Crow is anything but pretty, being mostly mouth, legs, and stubby pin feathers, but it is_ not long before his feathers grow out nice, black and shiny, and he learns to fly.
After the nesting season is over the Crows spend the night in large numbers in thick forests. Such a place is called a Crow roosti As each Crow arrives he is greeted with loud Ka-ingx.
In the autumn the Crows flock together and fly about the fields, occasionally stopping in some tall trees seemingly to discuss some subject. At last they go to the forest, put a young Crow on guard, then have a lively meeting. They all talk at once until they seem to decide upon some plan, then move on, only to repeat it. In very cold weather the Crow goes southward, but soon returns to his old haunts.
