Crow hunting
I recall reading a wonderful story about crows when I was a language student in Hakodate, Japan, the southernmost city in Hokkaido. I looked it up and will quote verbatim from the account of Mr. H. T. Snow, as he described events in 1876:
"Upon the occasion of the visit of the Emperor to Hakodate, a crow, when flying over the imperial carriage, so far forgot himself as to commit an indignity on His Imperial Majesty. The people of Hakodate were very angry, and a price was set, not upon the head of Mr. Crow, but upon his feet, the authorities paying four cents per pair for all crow's feet brought in to the police. I was in Hakodate during the winter when this regulation was in force. It soon had the effect of reducing the number of crows."
The local historians noted that children hunted with slings and became so good at hunting crows that they were almost extinct in the Hakodate region. So the bounty was eliminated, and within a couple of years, the crow population was back to previous levels.
BTW, I should note that Japanese crows are not like European crows. They're quite different animals, they're much larger and they have big sharp bills that look like a parrot's. Their beak can tear through metal cans and bite through wires. In Tokyo, crows are notorious for stealing wire coat hangers and bending them into nests. They can bend wire like a European crow bends straw.