No. 4.] THE CROW IN MASSACHUSETTS. 283 



showed the stomach to be quite full, but less than fifty per 

 cent of the contents were in a condition to be recognized. 

 These were more particularly the hard parts of the wings, 

 thoraces and legs. The strongly chitinized pronota and hind 

 femora of the grasshoppers offered the most resistance to the 

 digestive process. The other fifty ])er cent of the stomach 

 contents were so finely divided that one would hardly care 

 to express a positive opinion as to its identity. 



The second crow was killed thirty minutes after the close 

 of the feeding period, which lasted four minutes, in which 

 time the bird ate six crickets and eleven grasshoppers. 

 TAventy-five per cent of the stomach contents was unrecog- 

 nizable. 



Mr. Kirkland, w^ho made the examinations, says: "I 

 think from what we have seei) that we would expect to find 

 the stomach emptied in about one to one and one-half 

 hours." 



The softer or more liquid food must evidently be digested 

 in a very few minutes and rapidly assimilated. 



The Food of the Crow. 



The investigation of the food of the crow, which was begun 

 in 1885 by the direction of the ornithologist of the U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, is by for the most important ex- 

 amination of this bird's food ever undertaken. A prelim- 

 inary statement of the results of an examination of ninety- 

 eight stomachs (eighty-six of the common crow and twelve 

 of the fish crow) was published in the annual report of. the 

 Department of Agriculture for 1888. 



In sunmiing up the evidence obtained from all sources 

 Professor Barrows says : "The careful examination of large 

 numbers of stomachs and the critical study of the insect food 

 of the crow may change materially the present as})ect of the 

 question ; l)ut, so far as the facts at present known enable a 

 judgment to be formed, the harm which crows do appears to 

 far outweigh the good." * 



A final report on the crow's food is embodied in a pam- 

 phlet issued by the department in 1895, entitled "The 



* Annual lisport United States Department of Agriculture, Report of the Orni- 

 tholosiist and MainuialDirist for the year 1888, pas^e 525. 



