SOME USEFUL AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 71 



question as to the damage the crows, when numerous, do at lambing time, 

 particularly in a bad season when ewes arid lambs are weak and starved, 

 during the other portion of the year in the same districts the crow acts as an 

 effective scavenger in cleaning up offal, and destroys many noxious insects, 

 hunting over the paddocks like the magpie, and working very busily when a 

 cutworm army or a locust swarm appears in the district. 



In the west the crow does yeoman service in the destruction of dead 

 carcases. I have seen many dead sheep so devoured that only the skin and 

 bones remained, half of the skin being almost intact ; dead rabbits are torn 

 to bits, and the maggots destroyed that would otherwise have entered the 

 ground and escaped. When a dead horse or bullock is skinned it is the 

 crows that set to work to strip the bones. In conBrmation of this, I would 

 append the following remarks, made by well-known pastoralists, in reply to a 

 circular sent out for information regarding the crow and the blow-fly pest : 



Bourke. " I myself do not think that the crow is really harmful. I have 

 always regarded the crow as a good friend, in spite of the fact that he some- 

 times kills a weakling lamb, and perhaps hastens the death of a weak sheep. 

 I believe the first obvious step to take in mitigating the blow-fly pest is to 

 stop the destruction of the crow. He kills many rabbits, is the most effective 

 enemy of grasshoppers in certain stages, and is the best of scavengers. I 

 have no doubt he is the best natural enemy of the blow-fly." 



Condobolin. "Consider the crow far and away the best scavenger and 

 destroyer of maggots. The magpie comes next." 



Coonamble. "The crow is the only bird that I know of that would do 

 any good. He would destroy the carcase by eating and pulling it about. 

 If we had the millions of crows that have been killed, we would not be 

 troubled with the blow-;fly." 



Canonbar. " I am inclined to protect the crow, except during lambing 

 time. They do much good." 



"Crowfoot," writing in the Pastoral Review upon " Bird Friends," says : 

 " I must not close without putting in a good word for the crow. He is a 

 friend in disguise, notwithstanding his cruelty to lambs and weak sheep. 

 If they would only leave the ' woollies ' alone, they would be as sacred as 

 the ibis and kingfisher in the flock-owner's mind, but as it is ' no license ' 

 is bracketed against the name of crow. If all the locusts' eggs, grubs, 

 caterpillars, and food that maggots love to dwell in were balanced against 

 the lambs and grown sheep crows destroy, the balance would be strongly in 

 their favour." 



In conclusion, I would quote Mr. W. E. Abbott, of Wingen, who has 

 always been a firm friend of the crow. After telling how he has found the 

 remains of dead sheep picked clean by the crows, he says : "It seems to me 

 that one crow with its unequalled sense of sight and smell and power of 

 locomotion, would be worth more than 100 men, whose work could not be 



