258 Crows 
by these insects. Crows cannot always be as easily 
proven to be innocent as in this illustration, for some- 
times they do considerable damage to cornfields, and 
occasionally slight damage to oat and wheat fields. 
The cornfields may easily be protected by scare- 
crows, by twining it, or by tarring the corn. Either 
of these methods is fairly effectual where crows are 
quite plentiful. 
After carefully considering the food of the crow 
throughout its range, and comparing the evidence for 
and against, the weight of the evidence seems to be 
in favor of the crow. Many of the wrongdoings at- 
tributed to crows years ago cling to them to-day, but 
circumstances have changed, and the facts are true 
only in part. Over seventy years ago Dr. Godman 
wrote as follows: 
“Where food is at any time scarce, or the oppor- 
tunity for such marauding inviting, there is scarcely 
a young animal about the farmyard safe from the 
attacks of the crow. Young chickens, ducks, gos- 
lings, and even little pigs, when quite young and 
feeble, are carried off by them. They are not less 
eager to discover the nests of domestic fowls, and 
will sit very quietly in sight, at a convenient distance, 
until the hen leaves the nest, and then fly down and 
suck the eggs at leisure. But none of their tricks 
