WESTERN CROW 265 



rodents, and as a scavenger ; but in many places it has formed the habit 

 of congregating in enormous numbers to feast on cultivated nuts and 

 fruits, which makes it a serious menace and requires effective control 

 measures to save any of the crops. 



Mrs. Wheelock (1904) says that "in California, acorns, beechnuts, 

 berries of various shrubs and trees, seeds and all kinds of fruit, with 

 insects such as locusts, black beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, spiders, 

 cutworms, angleworms, and injurious larvae form a large part of its 

 daily menu. In addition small mammals and snakes, frogs, lizards, 

 snails, crawfish, fish, all kinds of dead flesh, and the eggs or nestlings 

 of other birds are his victims. * ♦ ♦ The fact that all feathered creatures 

 are arrayed against him is proof to me that, from the bird-lover's stand- 

 point, he does more harm than good." 



Ralph H. Imler (1939), in his comparative study of the food of crows 

 and white-necked ravens in Oklahoma, found that the crows were ap- 

 parently more beneficial in their feeding habits than the ravens since 

 they ate many more insects and weed seeds. His analysis of 14 crow 

 stomachs showed the following proportions: "Beetles, 4.6 percent; 

 grasshoppers, 9.4 percent; mammals, 1.2 percent; grain, sorghums, 24.7 

 percent; corn, 24.9 percent; melons and citron seeds. 18.9 percent; 

 sunflowers, 16.3 percent." 



Some of the items mentioned by Mrs. Wheelock may be placed to 

 the credit of the crow, and probably the large percentages of grain in 

 Mr. Imler's report may be waste grain and therefore neutral ; but there 

 is another side to the picture, which is as black as the crow's plumage. 

 Mrs. Nice (1931) says that "in northern Oklahoma crows have be- 

 come a serious pest in pecan orchards" and describes their crafty 

 methods of work and the none too effective methods of control. "Vast 

 numbers have been killed in Oklahoma: 10,000 in one week near 

 Chickasha in February, 1926, 11,000 in Pa5Tie County during the winter 

 1927-28, 3692 in two nights by means of dynamite near Vinita in 

 January, 1929, according to the newspapers ; but vast numbers remain." 



Maj. Leon L. Gardner (1926) tells an interesting and most remark- 

 able story of an immense congregation of crows and the devastation 

 that they wrought: "In the region of Goodnoe Hills, Klickitat County, 

 Washington, a very promising enterprise in raising almonds and apri- 

 cots was developing. It was reported, however, by the farmers of that 

 region that in fall enormous flocks, amounting to 'millions of crows,' 

 c.ame into this region and destroyed practically the entire crop of fruit 

 and nuts, together with considerable acreages of watermelons." When 

 he arrived, about the middle of August, "the almonds were ripening fast 

 and crows had assembled in mass from the surrounding country for 

 the annual feast." He continues : 



