118 THE SECOND BOOK OF BIRDS 
There is enough to be said about this bird to fill 
this whole book. So I shall not try to tell all 
about him. 
The crow is thought by many people to be the 
most knowing bird in America, and he is the 
one who has been most abused. He does some 
mischief, it is true, but he does a great deal more 
good. So say the officers of the Department 
who have looked into his food. They have found 
that he does pull up some corn; but he stuffs 
himself and his family with thousands, and even 
millions, of grubs, and insects, and mice, and 
other small creatures, that would have done far 
more damage to the crops than he. 
Farmers have often killed or driven away the 
crows, because they thought they were hurting 
their crops. But sometimes they have found 
out their mistake, and have been glad to get 
them back again. 
A story comes from the West which shows 
what I mean. One year the farmers were 
alarmed to see a great many crows around their 
fields. They had never seen so many there. Of 
course they thought they had come to eat the 
corn, so they began to kill them. I won’t tell 
you the ugly story of the war against the birds. 
After it had gone on awhile, the farmers began 
to notice that crows were not the only ones who 
