192 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



cast up by freshets. They take crayfish, mussels, minnows, fish, tadpoles, 

 and frogs. Where mountain folk haul carcasses of horses and cows 

 into lonely recesses of the uplands, I have known ravens to appear 

 and cleanse the bones. They contend with crows, starlings, blue jays, 

 and turkey buzzards for morsels of food. I have found that, when they 

 have gorged themselves on organic matter, they will dig circular holes 

 in sod, about 3 inches wide and 4 inches deep, in which they bury 

 pieces of meat that they desire to have properly seasoned. They 

 return and utilize it at an opportune time." 



Reid Mc.Manus (1935) tells of a raven that entered a henhouse in 

 New Brunswick, when food was scarce in the winter, and killed a 

 sickly hen; it escaped when surprised but returned to feed and was 

 killed ; its stomach contained only a piece of skin from the hen and a 

 few feathers. Mr. Harlow (1922) has known ravens "to eat the buds 

 of various trees when hard pressed for food." There are several other 

 items, not referred to above, that have been mentioned as included in 

 the raven's varied diet, viz: Mice, rats, lizards, snakes, various insects 

 such as beetles, grasshoppers, and crickets, several forms of marine in- 

 vertebrates picked up along the seashore, and mollusks. The raven 

 seems to have learned from the gulls, or perhaps the gulls have learned 

 from the raven, the tric^ of breaking the shells of mollusks by dropping 

 them on the rocks. 



A study of the food of the raven would seem to indicate that it is 

 not a serious menace to man's interests. The harm that it does to young 

 lambs, poultry, or wild birds' eggs is probably overestimated and more 

 than offset by the good it does in the destruction of injurious rodents 

 and insects. Most ravens live far away from human habitations, and 

 where they do come in contact with villages, trading posts, and camps 

 in the north they are useful as scavengers. 



Charles Macnamara tells me that in the lumber camps of Ontario in 

 winter "the shanty men, working too far from their camp to return 

 for dinner, were always careful to bury in the snow the flour bag con- 

 taining their frugal meal of bread and pork, so as to hide it ; for the 

 raven, if he found it, would promptly tear it open with his powerful 

 beak and devour the contents. The French Canadians interpreted the 

 birds' hoarse cry as *Poch! Poche!' ('Bag! Bag!'), and said he was 

 calling for the lunch bag." 



Francis Zirrer says in his notes that ravens "often frequent those 

 parts of heavy timber where the waters of the spring thaw and later 

 rains remain longest. Very little vegetation develops in such places ; 

 the ground remains mostly bare. In the rich, black humus, however, 

 an enormous number of larvae of various species of Diptera live. 



