BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK 



The Common Crow 



(Corvus Americanus) Crow family 



Called also : CORN THIEF 



Length — 16 to 17.50 inches. 



Male — Glossy black with violet reflections. Wings appear saw- 

 toothed when spread, and almost equal the tail in length. 



Female — Like male, except that the black is less brilliant. 



Range— '[\\xoug\\oui North America, from Hudson Bay to the 

 Gulf of Mexico. 



Migrations — March. October. Summer and winter resident. 



if we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain 

 value upon the broad, strong dash of color in the landscape, given 

 by a flock of crows flapping their course above a corn-field, against 

 an October sky ; but the practical eye of the farmer looks only 

 for his gun in such a case. To him the crow is an unmitigated 

 nuisance, all the more maddening because it is clever enough to 

 circumvent every means devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes 

 its rapacity ; fear is unknown to it. It migrates in broad day- 

 light, chooses the most conspicuous perches, and yet its assur- 

 ance is amply justified in its steadily increasing numbers. 



In the very early spring, note well the friendly way in which 

 the crow follows the plow, ingratiating itself by eating the larvae, 

 field mice, and worms upturned in the furrows, for this is its one 

 serviceable act throughout the year. When the first brood of 

 chickens is hatched, its serious depredations begin. Not only 

 the farmer's young fledglings, ducks, turkeys, and chicks, are 

 snatched up and devoured, but the nests of song birds are made 

 desolate, eggs being crushed and eaten on the spot, when there 

 are no birds to carry off to the rickety, coarse nest in the high 

 tree top in the woods. The fish crow, however, is the much 



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