70 SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 



Many years ago I had opportunities of studying the habits of crows on the 

 plains between Echuca and Kerang, when looking after ewes and lambs in 

 times of drought in Victoria. I held no brief for the crow, and hated that 

 black, cruel, devilish bird, when I found the fallen ewe with her eyes picked 

 out and the helpless lamb standing beside her, with holes pecked in its taiL 

 One would often see a pair of particularly cunning crows separating a young 

 lamb from its bewildered mother, the first crow flying beside the scared, 

 running lamb, every now and then flapping its wings against the poor little 

 beast ; while the second crow would deliberately fly up behind and peck it on 

 the rump to hurry it away from the mob. At other times one would come 

 upon a lost lamb on the plains with a crow flapping round, and every now 

 and then giving a tug to its tail' to try and pull it to the ground. The 

 sheep-owners will tell you that a sheep or lamb pecked by crows, once down,, 

 seldom lives, and attribute it to the fact that crows are carrion feeders and 

 cause blood-poisoning. Of course, in bad times with starving stock, many 

 of the old ewes and lambs that get down would never recover, even in the 

 absence of the crows, but such facts do not have much weight with the sheep 

 man in the circumstances described. 



The farmer dislikes crows quite as much as the squatter, and seldom has a^ 

 good word to say for them. If he runs sheep, he generally has more culls 

 and old sheep in proportion to the size of his flock, and they are the ones 

 that suffer from the crows. The crow is also an expert at stealing eggs, and 

 his depredations in the fowl-yard are only too well known by the housewife, 

 I used to visit a homestead on the plains in Victoria, where three crows 

 formed a syndicate to raid the fowl nests in the stable, where they had the 

 advantage of open gable-ends, giving a ready means of ingress and retreat. 

 Their method was as follows: The first crow flew into a she-oak tree overlooking 

 the house and stable, and finding all quiet, evidently sent back word, for the 

 second crow flew up and took observations while resting on the roof of the 

 stable ; a fresh signal was sent back, when the third crow flew up, hopped 

 down into the manger, snapped up the egg before the hen had finished 

 cackling, and flew away down the- paddock, followed by the two scouts. 

 Many traps and ambushes were laid for the egg-stealers, but as far as I 

 know my friend never managed to get the best of them. 



The crow is accused, probably not without reason, of destroying the eggs 

 and nestlings of smaller birds, and it is quite evident that other birds do not 

 trust him, for at nesting time if a crow comes into the tree, all the smalt 

 birds join together to hustle and drive him away. 



Having given some account of the bad habits of the crow, I will now 

 describe some of his good traits. It is worthy of note that the majority of 

 the squatters who wage war upon the crow belong to the coastal and 

 eastern portion of the State, while it is the men of the west who consider 

 that the work of scavenging and killing blow-fly maggots and other insect 

 pests outweighs any damage this bird does to their flocks. While there is no- 



