Economic Reasons for Protection 105 



chicken-yard, woe to the hawk or crow that 

 attempts to steal the chickens. Long before he 

 gets near, the kingbirds will fly out and attack 

 him, and like as not will make the feathers fly 

 from his back before he can escape. Besides, 

 ninety per cent, of the kingbird's food consists of 

 insects. He has been accused of eating honey 

 bees, but that he does so to any great extent has 

 not been proven. In 241 stomachs examined, 

 there were found forty drones, four workers, and 

 six whose sex could not be determined. The 

 killing of the drones was beneficial, and the small 

 loss entailed by the killing of four workers was 

 more than made up for by the destruction of 

 nineteen robber flies which were also found in 

 these stomachs. 



Crows and blue jays seem to be "on the fence/' 

 They both do great good at certain times and 

 in certain places and great damage at other 

 times and places. Both of them stand rather 

 high as destroyers of insects and both have bad 

 reputations as robbers of birds' nests. In his 

 government bulletin on The Common Crow of the 

 United States, Professor Walter B. Barrows sums 

 up his subject's case as follows: 



" (i) Crows seriously damage the corn crop, and 

 injure other grain crops, usually to a less extent. 

 (2) They damage other farm crops to some extent, 



