314 CORVID^ : CROWS AND JAYS. 



COMMON CROW. 

 CoRVUS FRUGivoRus Bartr. 



Chars. Color uniform lustrous black, including the bill and feet ; 

 nasal bristles about half as long as the bill ; throat-feathers oval 

 and blended; no naked space on cheeks. Length 18.00-20.00; 

 wing, 13.00-14.00 ; tail, about 8.00 ; bill, 1.75-2.00 ; tarsus, about 

 equal to middle toe and claw. 



The Crow is a common New England bird, quite 

 irrespective of latitude, and resident throughout our 

 country. At the same time, it is a creature of great 

 sagacity and full of resources for making itself com- 

 fortable ; so that the actual dispersion, whether of 

 single individuals or of the great congregations so 

 often observed, fluctuate with the food-supply and the 

 changes of weather. It is on the whole most numer- 

 ous in cultivated districts, where a varied fare is read- 

 ily secured, and where are learned instinctively those 

 arts and wiles by which the unpopular fowl demon- 

 strates its fitness to survive in the struggle for exist- 

 ence. Wary and mistrustful as it is, skeptical of things 

 that are not what they seem to be, its fertility of inven- 

 tions to shun delusion is no more than necessary to 

 self-preservation ; for the bird has a bad name, which 

 alone is a serious thing to contend against, to say 

 nothing of the actual damage it does to the grain-field. 

 But I doubt that even the proscribed and persecuted 

 Crow does not do more good than harm. It is so 

 omnivorous, that the seedling or standing crops fur- 

 nish but a tithe to its whole subsistence, number- 

 less forms of noxious animals being destroyed in the 

 Crow's natural walk in life. In any event, the bird 



