LAND BIRDS. 425 



the stomach examination, to form a rather constant item in the diet. Un- 

 doubtedly the Crow occasionally destroys the nests of meadow mice, 

 particularly in early spring when the snow is melting away, and it then 

 devours the helpless young, thereby doing some positive good. It must 

 be remembered, however, that the normal mortality among field mice 

 and meadow mice is considerable and the Crow unquestionably consumes 

 hundreds of these little rodents, picked up as carrion. The same is true 

 of frogs, toads, snakes and fish; for although any of these may be taken 

 alive when opportunity offers, it is unquestionably true that the great 

 majority of such remains in the stomachs are from individuals found dead 

 by the Crow, thus merely representing so much carrion. The habit already 

 referred to, of haunting the margins of pond, stream, and sea, points 

 plainly to this fact in the Crow's economy, and nothing is more certain 

 than that it watches the shores and patrols the water's edge continually 

 on the lookout for such food. Similiarly when a stream, pond, or pool 

 dries up the Crow is always on hand to get the dead or dying water animals 

 thus left at its mercy. In all this work (with the possible exception of that 

 on mice) no good of any importance is done, since the materials thus 

 consumed would have been effectually disposed of by the various carrion- 

 eating insects or by speedy dessication and decay, without injury of any 

 kind to man. 



The relation of the Crow to our wild birds and to domestic poultry is 

 of decided importance. Perhaps no single trait has been more generally 

 noted or more uniformly condemned than its habit of robbing the nests 

 of other birds; not simply those of the robin, thrush, meadowlark and other 

 song birds, but those of the quail, partridge, wild duck, sea gull, and various 

 other birds or waterfowl, in fact the nest of any bird whatever, provided 

 it can secure the eggs or young without too much danger to itself. The 

 skill with which this is done is often amazing. Crows will pass back and 

 forth in the vicinity of birds nests which seem to be plainly exposed and 

 of which the Crows must know the location, yet day after day they will 

 ignore these nests until precisely the right moment arrives, when almost 

 invariably they descend upon the nest in the absence of the parents and 

 devour or carry away for their young whatever the nest may contain. 



The fact that the stomachs show so small a percentage of the remains 

 of wild birds and eggs is readily explained by a consideration of the facts. 

 In the first place the eggs usually are devoured at once by the Crow, not 

 carried to the nest to be fed to the young; and in most cases the shells are 

 entirely discarded, only the soft interior of the egg being swallowed. Again, 

 the unhatched chicks or the nestlings devoured by the Crow or fed to the 

 young contain few or no hard parts which can escape digestion and remain 

 to be used as evidence against the criminal. The beak, bones and claws 

 ate all soft and in most cases the feathers are too small and undeveloped 

 to be identified. Thus it happens that Crows may feed extensively upon 

 the eggs and young of other birds, while the stomach contents may give 

 little or no evidence against them. The complaints from sportsmen and 

 naturalists alike, are almost unanimous in condemning the Crow for the 

 destruction of immense numbers of the eggs and young of game birds 

 and waterfowl; and all the evidence collected goes to show that, aside 

 from climatic conditions, no single factor is so important as the Crow in 

 reducing the number of these birds. 



It is now known with certainty that the Crow destroys large numbers 

 of chickens, ducklings and the young of other domesticated poultry. 



