Winged Vermin Food of the Crow. 433 



of which the crow certainly destroys a fair number, together 

 with shrews, and, perhaps, an occasional mole or two. Insect 

 life, as far as concerns some of those beetles which either 

 dwell on the ground surface or are strictly fossorial, with 

 many grubs of comparatively harmless nature, go towards 

 satisfying the crow's appetite. The number of insects, 

 however, can scarcely be worth recording, as, together 

 with worms, &c., they form a very small part of this 

 bird's food. The nests of small birds, placed in any posi- 

 tion liable to observation, are quite likely to be emptied 

 of their contents by these feathered vermin. To the game 

 preserver, however, the crow in absence is decidedly superior 

 to the crow present, obtaining, as it does, by means as 

 stealthy as successful, his various furred and feathered 

 proteges. Rabbits of any size or age are captured, and, 

 being captured, eaten, the favourite ruse seeming to be a 

 quick rise from one side of a hedge, swooping down on 

 the quarry already marked on the other at least, we have 

 repeatedly observed it so in addition to many other stealthy 

 ways more worthy of a poaching cat. There is no doubt 

 that in a similar manner to this crows kill young partridges, 

 besides fair-sized leverets, but it is difficult to prove, for, 

 besides having a habit of hiding to some extent the remains 

 of its victims, the action of a crow when consuming a bird 

 is so indistinguishable from its usual mode of behaviour 

 that it would excite no special notice. It is, however, among 

 the young of game that the crow's mischievous habits 

 prove most objectionable, and although the magpie and 

 jay are remarkably obnoxious, the crow runs them very 

 close as a destroyer of eggs. If one of these varmints 



