Yet with all his rascality he has many curious and interesting ways.
In fact, I hardly know another bird that so well repays a season's
study; only one must be very patient, and put up with frequent
disappointments if he would learn much of a crow's peculiarities by
personal observation. How shy he is! How cunning and quick to learn
wisdom! Yet he is very easily fooled; and some experiences that ought
to teach him wisdom he seems to forget within an hour. Almost every
time I went shooting, in the old barbarian days before I learned
better, I used to get one or two crows from a flock that ranged over
my hunting ground by simply hiding among the pines and calling like a
young crow. If the flock was within hearing, it was astonishing to
hear the loud chorus of _haw-haws_, and to see them come rushing over
the same grove where a week before they had been fooled in the same
way. Sometimes, indeed, they seemed to remember; and when the pseudo
young crow began his racket at the bottom of some thick grove they
would collect on a distant pine tree and _haw-haw_ in vigorous answer.
But curiosity always got the better of them, and they generally
compromised by sending over some swift, long-winged old flier, only to
see him go tumbling down at the report of a gun; and away they would
go, screaming at the top of their voices, and never stopping till they
were miles away.
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