THE MUSEUM. 



313. 



not seem to breed abundantly in any 

 portion of it. Each woodlet or wood- 

 ed island may be the breeding station 

 of from one to five pairs. Mentanic 

 Island, in Penobscot bay, annually 

 supports about five pairs. This num- 

 ber may be stimulated by the desire to 

 pilfer the Night Herons {Nycticorax 

 nycticorax luvvius), which also breeds 

 here in large numbers. On Crow Is- 

 land in the same vicinity, the densely 

 foliaged white spruce {Picca alba) is 

 the chief form of vegetation, and in 

 these trees the birds formerly nested, 

 building very low (about ten feet from 

 the ground). The Island is uninhabit- 

 ed and seldom visited by man. In 

 1885, the Raven [Corviis corax prin- 

 cipalis) took possession and no Crows 

 nested there that season. There is 

 constant warfare between the two spe- 

 cies. " 



H. R. Buck, Wethersfield, Conn. — 

 "Crows are very common with us at 

 all seasons and especially so in Winter. 

 Then they collect in large flocks, pro- 

 bably recruiting from much further 

 north, and keep together pretty well 

 until the breeding season. As a rule 

 they spend the nights in the meadows 

 of the Connecticut River, roosting in 

 large numbers in the black oak trees, 

 which are abundant in many places. 

 At such times they are perhaps less 

 watchful than in the day time, but 

 nevertheless they always have guards 

 posted, day and night. They can sel- 

 dom be approached without the guards 

 giving the alarm. Some twenty years 

 ago my father shot sixteen by firing 

 the contents of a double-barreled gun 

 into a tree where they roosted. About 

 dawn they begin to stir, and from sun- 

 rise until noon there is a steady stream 

 of them fiying to the neighboring hills, 



where they pass the day. Here they 

 feed on berries, seeds, and almost any- 

 thing they can pick up. They un- 

 doubtedly do good by killing larvae and 

 grubs, which they find under bark and 

 leaves. Warm brooks are among 

 their favorite feeding grounds, and 

 they sometimes come quite close to 

 farm yards in search of such scraps as 

 may be thrown out. When the Spring 

 thaws come, they may be seen almost 

 constantly feeding on the edges of the 

 melting ice, sometimes in company 

 with the Herring Gull {Lams argenta- 

 tus sinithsonia/ius) whi:h often comes 

 up the river. Here they find acorns, 

 berries, and the garbage from towns 

 further up the river. They also col- 

 lect in large numbers about the city 

 dumps, showing a great fondness for 

 carrion, and all refuse found in such a 

 place. 



"As the season advances, they aban- 

 don their routine habits, break up into 

 smaller parties, and finally into pairs, 

 when they set about the more serious 

 business of nesting. In this locality 

 they seem to like the sunshine, and 

 avoid the deeper woods. When the 

 eggs hatch, 'then the trouble begins' 

 for the farmers, as the corn comes up 

 about that time and the young birds 

 must eat. I do not think the crows 

 dig up the kernel before it sprouts, 

 but from the time the blade first shows 

 above the ground until it is three in- 

 ches high, they seem to consider it 

 their lawful property. They pull up 

 the sprouts for the kernels at the end. 

 The Crow does great damage in this 

 way, especially in isolated fields, where 

 the whole crop has sometimes to be 

 replanted, There are two methods in 

 use here for preventing this loss. The 

 first and oldest way is to stretch white 



