AMERICAN CROW. 129 
impressed with the Crow’s eloquence you must hear him 
when, in the fancied privacy of his own flock or family, 
he discusses the affairs of the day. His notes then are 
low, and so varied in tone that one can not doubt their 
conversational character. 
During the winter Crows assemble in large flocks 
containing many thousand individuals, who nightly re- 
turn to some roost, which perhaps has been frequented 
for years. In March they begin to pair and the nest is 
constructed early in April. It is a bulky affair of 
sticks, lined chiefly with grapevine bark, and is placed in 
a tree, usually about thirty feet from the ground. The 
four to six eggs are bluish green, thickly marked with 
* shades of brown. 
Crows share with Hawks the reputation of being 
harmful birds. That they do much damage in the corn- 
field is undeniable, but, after the examination of nine 
hundred Crows’ stomachs, Dr. Merriam, of the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, states that the amount of good 
done by the Crow in destroying grasshoppers, May 
beetles, cutworms, and other injurious insects, exceeds 
the loss caused by the destruction of corn. Moreover, if 
the corn be tarred before planting, the Crows will not 
touch either the kernel or young sprout. The corn 
should first be soaked in water overnight, and then 
placed in a vessel containing enough soft tar to coat each 
kernel. It should then be rolled in plaster of Paris or 
wood ashes, so that it can be more easily handled.* 
The Blue Jay, in his uniform of blue and white, is so 
brightly colored, so large (he is nearly twelve inches in 
length), and often so noisy, that every one knows him. 
*Seo Barrows and Schwarz, The Common Crow, Balletin No, 6, 
United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Ornithology 
and Mammalogy. 
