Blacky Calls Farmer Brown’s Boy explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Friendship and Cooperation

  Blacky calls Farmer Brown's Boy to help drive away the hunter, showing cooperation between species.

• Moral Ambiguity

  The hunter uses baiting, which is condemned by Farmer Brown's Boy as unfair and cruel, contrasting with fair hunting.

Characters to notice

• Blacky the Crow

  Blacky awakes in high spirits after saving Dusky the Black Duck, and deliberately calls Farmer Brown's Boy to the hunter's blind.

• Dusky the Black Duck

  Mentioned as having been saved by Blacky the previous afternoon; not present in the chapter.

• Farmer Brown's Boy

  Responds to Blacky's calls, investigates the hunter's blind, and discovers baiting corn but no evidence of killed ducks.

• The Hunter

  Referenced as the one who built the blind and baited corn; not present in the chapter.

Key passages

• “Blacky began to call in the way he does when he has discovered something and wants others to know about it. 'Caw, caw, caaw, caaw, caw, caw, caaw!' screamed Blacky, as if greatly excited.”

  Blacky cawed loudly and excitedly to attract Farmer Brown's Boy's attention to the hunter's blind.

  Blacky uses his call as a signal to summon help.

• “A couple of grains of corn just inside the blind caught his eyes, and his face darkened. 'That fellow has been baiting Ducks,' thought he. 'He has been putting out corn to get them to come here regularly. My, how I hate that sort of thing!'”

  Farmer Brown's Boy finds corn in the blind and realizes the hunter has been baiting ducks, which he strongly disapproves of.

  Baiting is portrayed as an unethical hunting method.