At a wigwam in the Adirondack Mountains a tame crow lives with a family of Indians. These Indians make baskets of birch bark and other things that they find out of doors, and sell them to visitors who spend their summer in the mountains. The little crow helps in the business. He makes himself so interesting to the passers-by that they stop to watch him. The Indians then have an opportunity to show their baskets, and very often sell them.
But we need not go to the Adirondacks to find a crow that earns his living. Mr. F. E. L. Beal, who has studied crows a long time, speaks of them as valuable farm hands; and Neltje Blanchan says that they are as much entitled to a share of the corn as the horse that plows it. This may surprise boys and girls who have heard crows spoken of as thieves and rascals. Let us look into their story so that we can find out for ourselves whether to the farmer the crow is a friend or an enemy.
How Jim Crow does harm:—
1. By killing toads, frogs, small snakes, and salamanders ("lizards"). Why are these little creatures first rate farm hands?
2. By pulling up sprouting corn. Some farmers prevent this by tarring the corn.
3. By stealing eggs, small chickens, and tiny birds. It is said that the crow is rarely guilty of these wrongs. What do you know about it?
How Jim Crow does good:—
4. By eating large numbers of insects: grasshoppers, caterpillars (including army worms and cut worms), June bugs, and other insects. So many insects does he devour that he earns more than he destroys. A half bushel of corn scattered on a field is said to be sufficient in many cases to prevent Jim Crow from pulling the growing corn.
To study crows:—