“Five crows, frock-coated in dignity, have arrived and sit upright and still on a bough. One thinks, ‘Oh beloved symbols of New England’ or ‘Drat those birds,’ depending upon whether one is planning a poem or a cornfield.’’

— Richard F. Merrifield (1905-1977), American essayist and novelist, in Monadnock Journal (1975). He lived in Keeene, N.H.