AMERICAN CROW 13 



may compensate for it by eating noxious species 

 at another. When the Crows are actually eating 

 corn, however, the dangling, dejected-looking 

 effigies put out to scare them have little effect ; 

 but cords strung across a field, and hung with 

 bits of tin that swing and glitter in the sun, seem 

 to suggest a trap, and so keep the wary birds 

 away. A still surer method of crop protection is 

 to soak some corn in tar and scatter it on the 

 borders of the field subject to their attacks. A 

 few quarts of corn used in this way will protect a 

 field of eight to ten acres. 



Professor Beal's conclusions regarding this 

 much-discussed bird are, that " in the more thickly 

 settled parts of the country the Crow probably 

 does more good than harm, at least when ordi- 

 nary precautions are taken to protect newly 

 planted corn and young poultry against his de- 

 predations. If, how- 

 ever, corn is planted n\ ^y^ ^ 

 with no provision l^^^^S^ ./ -_jlu!^^ 

 against possible ma- f^^f<^^^^^0f^ -r^ir^ 

 rauders, if hens and 

 turkeys are allowed 

 to nest and to roam ^^^"- ^• 



..,.,., ^ . Grasshopper, eaten extensively by 



With their broods at n 



Crows. 



a distance from farm 



buildings, losses must be expected." It cer- 

 tainly seems worth while to take a little trouble 

 to make the Crows harmless, for they eat so many 



