Debbie Montgomery, age 13, of Milford, Conn., for her question:

ARE CROWS REALLY INTELLIGENT?

Debbie knows a half tame crow called Charlie, who seems smart enough to be classed as intelligent, even though he is only six months old. She also reports that Charlie is full of devilish tricks. None of this is unusual. For example, last year the neighborhood crows outsmarted Andy and stole most of his pecans.

When you get to know a crow, you soon learn two indisputable facts about him. He is smart enough to be rated as a near genius. He is mischievous enough to be rated as a downright rascal.

Experts in animal intelligence report that the smartest birds are the crow and his cousins, the rook and the raven. Most of us know that our native crow has a glossy black body about 20 inches long and glossy black wings that spread 3 feet wide. His hello is a squawky caw caw  and he usually arrives with a flock of his loudmouthed relatives.

By rights, our clever crow should be regarded as a friendly ally. He devours mousy rodents, plus quantities of grasshoppers and other pesky insects. However, this is not the whole story. The old smarty is a born rascal, full of tricks and also prone to steal small bright treasures, such as spoons and watches.

For reasons known only to himself, the crow is quite fond of people and likes to hang around homes, especially, farmhouses. There he teases and scares the cats and dogs. He also removes clothespins from the laundry line and pulls other frustrating tricks.

However, he reserves his cleverest plots for stealing corn and other goodies from the garden. Some people still set out scarecrows. But even a crow of average intelligence is smart enough to know the difference between a scarecrow and a person.

In this department, the crows seem capable of long range planning. In spring, they swoop down on the scarecrow with wild yells. The angry farmer arrives and drives them away, along with all the other birds. But when the corn is ripe, the wicked crows arrive in    silence  and dine in privacy. As they leave, maybe one of them utters a loud caw caw of victory.