The Crow 469 



times bounties have been paid for their heads, thus offering a special induce- 

 ment to men to kill them. Guns, traps, poison, and destruction of their nests 

 have all alike been in vain, for the Crows live on in apparently undiminished 

 numbers. 



As a matter of fact, the Crow is not altogether a bad bird, and if he were 

 understood better I have little doubt that he would have far more friends than 

 foes. He eats a great many harmful insects, and in this way 

 makes amends for his sins in the cornfield. Many beetles, Insect Food 

 June-bugs, and other insects of a similar character, are eaten by 

 Crows in great numbers during the spring and early summer. Some observers 

 state that baby Crows are fed, to a very large degree, on this kind of diet. 

 Crows like grasshoppers, especially in the spring, and annually consume large 

 quantities of them. They eat also, among other objects, such queer foods as 

 frogs, toads, and young turtles, and even small snakes find favor in their eyes. 

 The wild fruit they take is mostly such as that of the dogwood and the sour 

 gum. Sumac-berries of different kinds are eaten. In fact, the Crow will sample 

 almost anything that looks as if it might be good to consume, such as frozen 

 apples, pumpkins, turnips, potatoes, or any other fruit or vegetable that may 

 be discarded and left to lie in the orchard or field. In cold, snowy weather, food 

 sometimes becomes very scarce. On such occasions Crows will feast on any dead 

 animal to be found, such as a horse or a cat. They sometimes go down to the 

 shore and hunt for clams, crayfish, and the bodies of dead fish that have 

 washed ashore. This practice, however, may more often be observed in the 

 Fish Crow, a bird slightly smaller than our common Crow, and found chiefly 

 along the sea-coast, and about the larger lakes and water-courses. 



The Crow, in its various forms, has a wide distribution throughout North 

 America; and there is hardly a boy or girl who does not know its cry, or who is 

 not familiar with the sight of the big, black fellow flying over the fields or rest- 

 ing for a moment on the top of a tree by the roadside. It is undoubtedly the 

 most common and best-known bird in the United States. 





