244 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



1. The Crow wherever found in large numbers is injurious to farmers from 

 March to December. 



2. Where Crows are numerous they should be reduced in nimibers and this 

 should be done under active cooperation of State or National Agricultural Au- 

 thorities. The Crow need not be exterminated. 



3. The good Crows do by eating insects does not compensate for the damage 

 done by eating eggs and young of other birds. 



4. In acting as scavengers, Crows carry disease; farmers should bury or burn 

 at once all dead animals. 



There is a great difference in local conditions. In the West crows 

 are a serious menace, while in parts of the East they are neutral or 

 actually beneficial. Of the conclusions arrived at by the Farm Journal, 

 those who have studied the economic relations of the crow will take 

 exception to conclusion No. 3. 



(For further comment on this questionnaire, see The Auk, vol. 43, 

 pp. 140-141, 1926.) 



Behavior. — The crows return to their roosting place early in the after- 

 noon. The flight then is high and quite direct. Various estimates have 

 been made of their speed in flight. Crows have been known to keep up 

 with trains running at the rate of 60 miles an hour, but the speed 

 determined by Townsend and others indicates that under ordinary con- 

 ditions it seldom exceeds 20 to 30 miles an hour. If this rate is correct 

 then a crow during sustained flight of a 10-hour day would cover only 

 about 250 miles. Ducks, according to Lincoln (1939), travel 400 to 

 500 miles in the same period. 



Townsend (1905) in writing of his experiences with crows in winter 

 at Ipswich, Mass., records some interesting incidents as follows: "Hear- 

 ing a great outcry among a party of Crows one day at Ipswich, I saw 

 several swooping down to within a few feet of a fox. Reynard seemed 

 not a whit disturbed, and carried his brush straight out behind as he 

 sauntered along. * * * I have heard them make a virtuous outcry over 

 a couple of innocent hares that were running through the dunes. 



"Tracks show that it is a common habit for Crows to drag their middle 

 toe in walking and sometimes all three front toes are dragged. Again, 

 tracks of the same or other Crows show that the toes are lifted up with- 

 out any dragging. I have seen Crows hop, and have found evidence of 

 that in the sand. In landing from the air, their tracks show it is often 

 their habit, to bound or hop forward once with feet together, before 

 beginning to walk." 



Some observers have stated that the crow in flight carries its feet 

 extended backward, but F. H. Kennard, in some unpublished notes, 

 records an observation made under favorable conditions. He was very 

 near a crow that was silhouetted against the snow as it took flight. It 



