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tered over the fields, meadow.s. aloug the highways, or 

 in the woods searching for food. At night these birds 

 resort in great numbers to favorite roosting places, 

 such as pine forests, cedar thickets, etc. 



WILL EAT EGG'S AND POULTRY. 



In the late spring and summer, Crows are particu- 

 larly destructive to young poultry, and the eggs and 

 young of small w^ild birds; frequently nests of domes- 

 ticated fowls, especially guineas and turkeys that often 

 wander to a considerable distance from the farm house 

 to lay, are also pillaged. These birds, as every farmer 

 is w^ell aw^are, commit more or less mischief in corn 

 fields. 



Although the Crow will rob the nest of any small 

 bird which he can get at, the nests of the Robin, Wood 

 Thrush, Catbird, Meadow Lark and Dove are the ones 

 I have usually seen disturbed. The injury w^hich the 

 Grow occasions by his egg-sucking, bird-devouring 

 habits is, it is affirmed by eminent authorities, more 

 than compensated by the large numbers of noxious 

 insects and mammals which he devours. 



There is no doubt, however, that when a pair of 

 Crows, in the breeding season, get in the habit of vis- 

 iting the farm yard to catch young chickens and steal 

 eggs, they will do considerable damage. Such visitors, 

 like bad individuals of the human race, which ai"e 

 found in nearly every community, should be checked 

 in their evil careers. So far as the Crows are con- 

 cerned, this can be best accomplished by the use of 

 either a good shot gun or an egg dosed with a little 

 strychnine. Their nest, which is u.snally to be found 

 in a woods near the place where the thieving practices 

 are carried on, should also be destroyed, particularly 

 if it contains young. 



