A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 2 of 3Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Science
A History of North American Birds; Land Birds; Vol. 2 of 3
Baird, Spencer Fullerton
Birds -- North America
When taken young, the Crow can be easily domesticated, and becomes a
very entertaining, but a very mischievous pet. It is very secretive,
hiding objects of no value to itself, and seems to delight in
mischief. It displays often a wonderful intelligence, appears to
understand and to obey certain directions, and manifests also
remarkable quickness of vision. A tame Crow belonging to a family
resident near Boston, and permitted to go at large, manifested all the
attachment of a dog. It especially enjoyed the society of the
children, and played with them in their games of hide and seek,
surpassing them by its readiness in finding the secreted object. It
was especially attached to the mistress of the house, flying to her
whenever she approached, hovering over her head, and alighting on her
shoulder.
In a few instances the Crow has been taught to imitate articulate
sounds. In one of these, in Grafton, Mass., the Crow not only
vociferated a single monosyllable repeatedly, but at other times
enunciated a short sentence of five syllables.
A few are resident in Massachusetts during the year, but the greater
portion move south in November and return in March. Those who remain
during the winter are chiefly resident near the sea-shore. The Crow
breeds from April to June, varying with the latitude of its residence.
In Massachusetts it has full-grown young by June 1. It builds, usually
in March, a large rudely constructed nest of sticks, moss, and bark,
lined with finer mosses, and sometimes with hair. The parent birds are
very watchful and vigilant if their nest is in danger, and often
expose their lives in their anxiety for their young. The male bird is
attentive to his mate during incubation, and assists in feeding the
young. The young are fed chiefly on insects, frogs, mice, and similar
food.
The eggs of the Crow vary from 1.60 to 1.55 inches in length, and from
1.20 to 1.10 in breadth. In their markings they exhibit surprising
variations. They usually have a ground of a light sea-green, over
which are scattered, more or less thickly, blotches, some of them
quite large, of a dark-brown, almost black, with purplish reflections.
These are chiefly about the larger end. Another quite common variety
is of a deeper ground of green, very uniformly and thickly sprinkled
with fine dottings of a sepia-brown. Others have a ground nearly
white, slightly tinged with green, more sparingly spotted with small
blotches of light purplish-brown. A nest found near Springfield
contained eggs having the ground-color on one side a pinkish-gray, the
rest being greenish-white, all spotted with brown. Another set of eggs
from Hudson, Mass., were of a light bluish-green, entirely unspotted,
resembling large Robin’s eggs; and Dr. Wood mentions another four, the
ground of which was flesh-color, and the spots red.
Corvus americanus, var. floridanus, BAIRD.
FLORIDA CROW.
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