The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 3, 1901, Page 5

THE SUNDAY CALL. < T IS generally admitted that the devil = not zo black as he is a crow, as the Frenchman puts it, rot so devil he’s black. If he v he would cert Iy be very devilish, for nothing in the animal king is er than the crow. As u matier of . he is not half a bad fei- w. and it is rather surprising that his real character is so little kuown and ap- preciated. He is one of the commonest birds, being found in nearly every State in the Union and away morth to the fur tries, and his large size and conspicu- color make it slmost impossible to ake him for anything else, In this part of the country at least. Yet he I derstogd for cen- y few people give any good qualities. ave always endeav- cter match his t of wicked things he to have done would fill a large me. He has been called an enemy of be farmer, the plague 4 of 11 omen. ng been m said of the gardener He has been ac- corn, sucking the and eating the chickens and often ting on the backs of sheep steal wool for his nest. So firm has been the belief in his vil- y that in many places a price has been t upon his head, and one State of this nfon has & record of having paid a bounty on forty thousand dead crows in 2d 2 b of steall to There is no G-T\HY’K that many Of the ries told against him are true. , for ot one, should not care for the task of estab- lishing his reputation as a saint, but fair play s & jewel, and when his blackness gets it every farmer in the land will know that he has many a worse friend of citizens had srowd a-rush for the a n the W s from shot. rang out and t s br ers and the to recover Dorey and a get A iperture 1se while 1 covered every ragged the within the z wher without inc! up and the the with by t e major owne his . way wa 1a v; himself ston than James Crow Esc. ' Then the greem - will not be gisfgured by the able scarecrow, and - the - dead body of the handsome biack bird will no. longer be nailed on the end of the barn as a warning to evildoers. He is one of the wisest birds we have he were 1ot he would be extinet), and this is probably due to the fact that he i+ very observant and: very inquisitive. He sees everything which goes on around him, and finds out as much about it as he can without exposing himself to dan- ger. Every unusual sound and every strange sight is taken nate of by the crow and investigated at a safe distance. We begin to find crow's nests in the early part of April. I have seen some in codar trees less than twenty feet up, and cthers in tall pines and chestnuts, per- haps seventy feet above the ground. They are bulky ‘affairs, made chiefly of sticks and lined with wid grapevine bark, grass, moss and other softish materials, and sometimes mud and hair are used. The eggs, from three to six in number, are about one and three-fourth inches long and usually bluish green, - with brown markings. They differ very.much in color, however, some being so heavily marked as to be almost solid brown, while others are pale blue and sometimes even white, ‘with few or no markings. Both birds assist In the incubation of the eggs. The male Is very dttentive, often tringing food to his mate while she is sitting, and felleving her when she 1is tired. The eggs are hatched in about a fort- night, and the young rema!n in the nest about five weeks. kven after leavirg home the family remains together for some time . Last spring I took from the nest three disrep: “ quard™ " For. rey t & window the major, who ¥y ‘retreat. - C besieging lines ¥ the old man appeared and leve thereu; the galiant major ¢ 1 dn ‘ovatic ey say, for, his bravery and his supe ratezy 1o ‘the ernoon: the faithful old dog of the garrison came into thé courtyard of the house in plain view of the and the citizens. A soldier was o o shoot it. In the sf a breathiess ok / v%/‘?.y..&,-lfi't/w}@fll/u‘u // ,/; //“]/]// -““M /' 4 / iy young crows, just four weeks .old. - They ‘were most unpromising. creatures, with big heads, clumsy feet and heavy bodles covered with pinfeathers. They were it- terly lacking in the brightness and alert- ness so noticeable in young hawks of lesa than half their age, and looked about as stupid as any birds I ever saw. The first day it was conslderable trouble to feed them; after that it was considerable trou- ble not to feed them. I dug them some worms, and after trying In vain to coax them to eat, I was obliged to open their mouths and push the food down. As this interesting occupatiuy took up more time thap I cared to devote to it, T thought I'd try an experiment, I set up a noise, in- tended ‘to imitate the cawing of a crow. Bad as it was, it worked like a charm. The three huddling black things seemed to have recelved a galvanic shock; threa long necks were stretched. upward and three red caverns yawned for food. After that they were a nulsance, and cawed al- most incessantly-from dawn until' dark. It would have been Impoesible to “‘forget” to feed them. ‘Whenever I put In an appearance they hopped through the longest gress and fol- lowed me all over the garden. Often when I was digging they narrowly escaped be- ing cut In two with the spade. Their period of duilness and stupidity was short. They grew rapidly, and be- came more Intelligent every day. At firet 1 used to. carry them up to the hayloft every avening, but as soon as they be- silence the man took careful alm, fired— and-m sed. The dog stopped a moment, low growl, shook his and E walked Lack into the On Monday moruing Ma Driant, the hero, of the hour, again came tite to ihé scene of hostilities, announ a second time he wouid He “was' accompanied by General of the Prefecture, the Chief the Cabinet of the Prefect teur -of -the Républic, the th M Procura ;/ =iy -fig\fuh/(/i S (VA / & U;'v“h came strong enough and even before they coyld fly they went Into the barn and hopped upstairs themsélves, . Their incessant cawing in ‘the dayiime brought scores of other crows to the gar- den. These would circie about above the heads of the little ones, calling loudly, as though trying. to coax them away. In a week or two the youngsters got ‘the use of their wings and flew about from the barn to the house, never failing to advise us when they were hungry. They soon gave up the use of the loft as a bed- © room and roosted In the trees instead. But no mattér where they were an imi- tation of thelr voices was always enough to bring them salling in to be fed. We called them Billy, McGee and McGaw. af- ter the three crows which once “‘sat on & darmes and the Police Commissioners. Soon after the Prefect himself appeared. All_the chief officials of the Department 6f Aube being now assembled, the major, accompanied by a soldier with a loaded e, approached to within a few yards of the besieged house and cried out as before, “Coquard! Coquard!" This time, hov no one appeared at the window, no sound of the cocking of a gun was heard. Only tlie dog came out into the courtyard and barked for a few moments, er, and then retired. now twice a hero. All the rest of the day was spent in the drawing up of strategio plans on_the part of the military authorities. long le- sal consultations on the part of the civil authorities and speculations, and the dis- cussion of rumors on the part of the cit- faens. The citizens gradually divided into two parties—one declaring that Co- quard had committed sulcide, and the other that he had escaped in the night. So retired the major, Those who held to tha suicide theory heflrd a shot up from the roof besieged shotgun, butt on the zle under chin, ng the trigger with his toe, had is brains out and the shingle: The other party was as sure that he had escaped, and worked b to of fleeing, dus T But no one vo e prove the matter by trying t er the house. The civ and m wers were su that Coquard was stiil house, and still on gua pos was made to suffocate man by hur down the ¢ of the authoities were deljghted with th nificent! ¢ ferred the cross of the on the proposer at once if th had the power. w e question as to who should thr » burning sul- phur down the c! It was the old story of who should “bell the cat™ over agaln, and this time there appeared no Douglass; so the proposition reluctantly to assault the the local h brought to the r spt ne was of Fort Co- quard, but no one being able to suggest just how the d ts were to be poured upon the besieged stonebreaker the apparatus was ordered back to th hospital. In the afternoon a gendarme and & po- liceman made a. reconnoissance to the back of a shed formi a part of the house, but thought they heard a sound like the cocking of a gun and hastily re- tired. Toward nightfall, however, thers was decided advantage gained by the be- sleging forces. The dog, which so val- tantly had aided his master in the de tense of the house, was found prowl’ about in that very neighbor's ga patch’ from which Coquard had stolea the cabbages. He was shot dead by the military and the gendarmes. Now came Tuesday, the fifth day of the siege. As the day wore on and no sign of Coquard was seen, as all calls for him to surren- der had falled to cause him to appear, it was determined that decisive action should be taken. Volleys fired at the house brought no response, and so in the afternoon a brave onslaught was ordered upon the buflding. With a cheer the gal- lant soldiers charged the front door, broke it in and entered the house. From room to room they cautiously went, find- ing everywhere silence and desertion. Fl- pally in a shed attached to the house they found the corpse of the old stone- breaker hanging by the neck. He had been dead two days. o 2 i, 7 0////4 uy, 'm// “/,// He never cared to baths two fdays run- ning in the same water, but when he saw me coming with a fresh supply he would sail right into his bath and slide along on its slippery bottom. Though he consid- ered himself a member of the family he * would never allow any rough familiarity tree” and whose adventures are. related in a certain college song. By and by McGee was given away to an admiring neighbor and McGaw was stolen by an admiring thief, so I was obliged to devote myself to the observation of Billy. He was certainly a most interesting crea- ture to watch. The first intimation I had that he inherited a love for bathing was one day when I had been making photo- graphs .and came in to find Billy In a tray of water on the dining-room table, and dancing all over a batch of prints which I had left to soak. He looked aw- fully wet and bedraggled, but supremely happy, so as the prints were ruined al- ready, I let him finish his bath in peace. After that T always left a porcelain ves- sel full of water under the trees for him. from any ome. We might stroke or scratch his head if we did it gently, par- ticularly if the caresses were accompa- nied by a soothing or apologetic tone of volice, but If any one passed a hand light- ly down his back with an abrupt “Hullo, Billy!” he would give a snarling “caa™ and seize the offending finger In a grip which took & plece out if the hand was removed too suddenly. The cats were no match for him at all. Even before he could fiy he had a su- preme contempt for them. One day when he was little more than a fledgling he was preening his feathers under a tree, when I saw our biggest cat stalking him through the grass. Like a tigress she drew herself along until within s few feet of the moving feathers, and then she suddenly rushed upon her prey as she had done upon a hundred other birds ba- fore. But her mark. S ething in the arance of the creature caused her to pull up. time she did not reach appe: As she did so the young crow .turned round and gave a disgusted * and the cat fled toward the house as though the devil was after her, Afterward, when the bird was al full - ‘grown ‘and walked about the g: len with a stately stride, and with his iridescent black plu= mage flashing in the sun, he would some- times spy the cats feeding at their dish near the back door. If he happened to be hungry he just marched over, jumped into the middle of the dish and scattered the cats with a few vigorous caws, helped himself and walked away again. On the top of the icebox, in the back porch, there was always a bowl of bread and milk for Billy’s special use. When he was little he was fed by hand, but when he grew older he came In, lifted up the cover and took what he wanted. But he could never be taught to cover the rest up when he went away. He wanted to do almost anything he saw any one else do. If the big greem caterpillars were being removed from the tomatoes Billy would put his whole heart into the job, and If any one was ploking peas Billy would come In and pick peas, too. But he always ate his Instead of pute ting them into the basket. Toward the end of the summer he lefy us. For some time he had been getting very intimate with a strangs crow, and I used to see them sitting on a wall in the early morning, possibly planning an elope= ment. At any rate, he began to get more and more irregular in his habits, until one morning he never appeared for breakfast at all. He came back the following day just to say “Good-by,” I suppose, and then flew away and has mever besn heard of since st