CHECKS UPON INCREASE OF USEFCE BlUDS. oliD 



of both Crow and Jay have been published elsewhere.^ The 

 American Crow (Corviis brach//r//i/iic/tos hravJnjrln/ncJtos) is 

 a foe to birds from the size of the Chippino- Sparrow to that of 

 the Night Heron, Rutted Grouse, and Black Duck, for it con- 

 tinually steals the eggs and young of such birds and poultry. 

 The evidence on this point is so con- 

 vincino- and voluminous that it is Ah 



mipossible to avoid this conclu- jSMWh 

 sion, although it is quite prob- '!!^/ir70jPlf^ 



able that only certain i h ' 



individual Crows are 

 the criminals. Crows 

 not only destroy eggs and 

 young birds, but they have 

 been known to band together 

 to hunt down and kill adult birds 

 as large as the Rutfed Grouse. 

 The well-known Blue Jay 

 (^Ci/anocitta o-istata cristata) de- 

 stroys the eggs of the smaller birdh, 

 whose nests it robs systematically, 

 and it has frequently been seen to 

 kill the young. The Robin and other 

 larger birds will drive the Jay away 

 from their nests, but it often succeeds 

 in robbing them by stealth. Vireos, Warblers, and Spar- 

 rows it regards very little, and plunders their nests without 

 noticing their agonized cries. Jays and Crows together 

 sometimes make it very difficult for other l)irds to raise any 

 young. It would not be advisable to exterminate the Crow, 

 for it has many useful habits ; but it should not be allowed 

 to increase at the expense of the smaller birds. Crows are 

 valuable as grasshopper killers, and they are destructive to 

 the gipsy moth. Jays eat the eggs of the tent caterpillar 

 moth, and the larva? of the gipsy moth, and other hairy eater- 



Fig. 155. — Blue. Jaj, one- 

 balf natural size. 



' See The Crow in Massachusetts, Annual Report of the Massachusetts State 

 Board of Agriculture, 181)6, pp. 285-289; Two Years witli the Birds on a Farm, 

 Ibid., 1902, pp. 147-149; and The Decrease of Certain Birds, Ibid., 1904, pp. 498- 

 502. 



