542 General Notes. [oct. 



The Case of a Crow and a Ruffed Grouse. — On May 12, 1912, while 

 automobiling through Stoughton, Mass., Mr. Charles A. Coolidge suddenly 

 came upon a Crow flying slowly across the road with a heavy burden. In 

 its efforts to escape, the Crow dropped its booty, which proved to be a dead 

 Ruffed Grouse, still warm as in life. 



My examination elicited the following facts: An adult female Ruffed 

 Grouse, weighing one and a quarter pounds; abdomen entirely bare as in 

 incubation; feathers back of right ear and below left eye stained with 

 blood; eyes intact; many feathers on the right side of the neck and some 

 on the left side, including the whole of the neck-tuft on that side, missing. 

 An effusion of blood the size of a silver dollar in the muscles of the right 

 breast, and a few small subcutaneous ones on both breasts; an irregular 

 rent in the skin a quarter of an inch long behind the right ear, and much 

 clotted blood there and around the exterior of the base of skull and neck; 

 a slight tear in the skin below the left eye. The skull was not injured and 

 the brain was intact. There were no signs of gun-shot injury. 



The ovary was full of small eggs, none larger than a number six shot. 

 The crop was stuffed with the young leaves and flower buds of the apple, 

 and the stomach was filled with the semi-digested remains of the same. 

 The bird was plump and in good condition, and showed no signs of disease. 



The interpretation of these post-mortem findings and of the observed 

 history is a matter for conjecture and the following theories are offered : 



(1) That the Crow flying close to the ground in open woods perceived 

 the incubating Grouse, who, trusting to her protective coloration, remained 

 immobile on her nest, and received her death blow behind the right ear. 



(2) That the Crow in attempting to steal the chicks of the Grouse was 

 set upon by the irate mother with the disastrous results observed. 



(3) That the Crow attacked the Grouse while busily engaged in budding 

 the apple tree, and that the stunned bird fell to the ground where a few 

 more blows finished it. 



(4) That the Grouse was killed by a hawk, was abandoned and at once 

 seized by the Crow. 



(5) That the Grouse killed itself by flying against some obstacle, and 

 that its dead body was at once taken by the Crow. 



The fall of the Grouse to the ground before life was entirely extinct, 

 which might have happened according to theory 3, 4 and 5 would account 

 for the contusion and hemorihage of the breast. This hemorrhage 

 would not have occurred when the Crow dropped the dead body into the 

 road. It hardly seems probable that a hawk would have abandoned such a 

 rich booty, or that it would not have left marks of its talons. In the case 

 of an obstacle one would expect to find hemorrhage over or under the 

 front of the skull. By exclusion therefore, theory number 3 seems to be 

 the most probable one. 



In whatever way the tragedy occurred it is certainly surprising that a 

 Crow should have succeeded in flying with such a heavy burden as a Ruffed 

 Grouse, and on this account alone, if for no other, the case is worth putting 

 on record. — Charles W. Townsend, M. D., Boston, Mass. 



