AMERICAN RAVEN 209 



determined vegetable material, corn and oats, amounted to" "only "2.35 

 percent of the total diet" of all the birds involved. And probably, at 

 other seasons of the year, vegetable matter forms a larger proportion of 

 the raven's diet. 



Mr. Skinner says in his notes from Yellowstone Park: "Ravens 

 habitually feed on such carrion as dead elk, deer, and small animals; 

 and I believe they follow bears and coyotes at times to benefit by 

 anything they may find or kill. They frequent the garbage piles for 

 scraps and they show little fear of the bears. I have seen a raven 

 on marshy ground eating a frog; and I was once greatly surprised 

 to see a raven on a tree limb reach up three inches and grab a fly 

 that attempted to fly over." 



Bendire (1895) writes: "Among various misdeeds it is charged with 

 killing young lambs, chickens, and turkeys, as well as with destroying 

 the eggs and young of different species of wild fowl; and while this is 

 true to some extent, yet where these birds can get a reasonable amount 

 of food from other sources they rarely disturb domestic animals of any 

 sort. I have more than once seen a Raven feeding among my poultry, 

 apparently on friendly terms with both young and old; they never 

 molested any to my knowledge; nor have I ever heard complaints of 

 shepherds that their lambs were troubled, much less killed, by them. 

 Their food consists principally of carrion, dead fish, and frogs, varied 

 with insects of different kinds, including grasshoppers and the large 

 black crickets so abundant at some seasons in the West; they also eat 

 worms, mussels, snails, small rodents, including some young rabbits, as 

 well as refuse from the kitchen and slaughterhouse." 



Charles A. Allen wrote to him, however, that "in the interior of 

 California the Raven destroys many young chickens and turkeys around 

 the ranches. In the spring months I have frequently seen one of these 

 birds flying overhead with a young fowl or an egg in its bill." The 

 chances are that most of the damage complained of is done by com- 

 paratively few individuals and that the species as a whole probably does 

 more good in the destruction of injurious rodents and insects than it 

 does harm. Ravens must also be credited with their usefulness as 

 scavengers. 



Behavior. — The flight of the raven is sometimes slow and measured, 

 like that of the crow, with which it is often confused by casual ob- 

 servers, but it is more majestic, grander, stronger and swifter, varied 

 with sailing or soaring in a manner that would rival a Buteo, or with 

 spectacular dives and plunges. 



Mr. Skinner says in his notes: "I have seen them high above a snowy 

 ridge, apparently 'riding the gale' seemingly for the mere pleasure of it. 



