THE FOOD OF AUSTRALIAN BIRDS. 5 



Other Birds. Of the large number examined, with the exception of one 

 or two notorious exceptions, the vast majority serve a more or less definitely 

 useful purpose in maintaining the balance of nature as regards the various 

 species of insects, and therefore should be encouraged to the utmost possible 

 extent. Only a very few have been found to feed on blow-flies, and as these 

 do so only occasionally they can play no definite part in controlling this 

 pest. 



Detailed Summaries and Verdicts on Individual Birds or Groups of 



Birds. 



Crows. For many years ornithologists were under the impression that 

 there were two common species of crow in the southern parts of Australia 

 Corvus coronoides, the hazel-eyed crow, and Corone australis, the white- 

 eyed crow or raven. A quite distinct species, Bennett's crow, is much 

 smaller and rarer. The two common species of crow were also considered 

 to differ as regards the fluffy bases of the feathers of the neck, being white 

 in one and greyish-white in the other. Gregory Mathews has recently 

 gone into the question fully, and considers that in New South Wales, at any 

 rate in the middle and southern parts, only one species of bird is concerned, 

 the hazel eyes becoming eventually white. The question is still under 

 consideration, but it is more or less of technical importance only since the 

 habits of the two species, if they are distinct, are apparently identical. 

 The thirty-eight crows dealt with in trie report have, therefore, all been 

 placed under one specific name, Corvus coronoides. 



An analysis of the stomach contents of these thirty-eight birds shows that 

 occasionally they eat wheat, maize and oat grains, and field peas. Their 

 depredations in this direction are, however, insignificant. As regards 

 animal food apart from carrion, mice were found in three crows, grass- 

 hoppers in six, the larva? of various moths (including in one case cutworms) 

 in five, and blow-fly maggots or pupa3 in two. All these items of animal food 

 comprise creatures more or less injurious to human undertakings, but the 

 amount of these pests destroyed by the crows does not amount really to r?ry 

 much, though the Entomologist states that he considers it one of the most 

 valuable insectivorous birds in the western country, as well as being a 

 scavenger. The latter statement, that the bird is a scavenger, is the chief 

 point in its favour. By tearing the carcases of sheep and cattle to pieces 

 to obtain its food it tends to destroy mechanically a number of fly maggots, 

 whilst others are scattered around and exposed, often to a hot sun ; moreover, 

 the carcase itself is more or less torn and broken up so as to dry more 

 rapidly, thus rendering it unsuitable as food for the Iarva3 of blow-flies. 



Summed up, as the result of these investigations the crow may be said 

 to be, on the negative side of the ledger, negligibly injurious from the 

 point of view of eating crop grains ; on the positive side of the ledger, some- 

 what useful as occasionally destroying mice, grasshoppers, moth larva?, and 

 blow-fly maggots, and very useful in helping 1 to dispose of carrion, thereby 

 tending to prevent the breeding of blow-flies therein. As a set-off to the 

 latter, the experience of sheep-owners that crows frequently destroy the 



