292 BOARD OF AGlilCULTUKE. [Pub. Doc. 



though they eat greedily. In such cases it Avill be noted 

 that stomach examinations would not show the full value of 

 the birds as caterpillar eaters. 



In view of the well-known difficulty encountered in ap- 

 proaching crows, some doubt may l^e expressed as to the 

 accuracy of these observations. This work has been so 

 carefully done, however, that there can be no possibility of 

 mistake. The caterpillars and pupse of the moth are quite 

 large and conspicuous, and the birds have been observed at 

 such close range that in some cases the number of insects 

 they ate might be readily counted. Mr. Bailey carefully 

 concealed himself early one morning in a swamp in Maiden, 

 Mass., for the purpose of watching birds that fed on the 

 caterpillars and other forms of the gypsy moth which 

 swarmed on the near-by trees. No crows came at first, but 

 soon two adults and their four young appeared, and most of 

 them remained feeding on the moths for nearly an hour and 

 until an incautious movement of the observer startled them, 

 when they left and did not return while he was there. The 

 cater})illars have the habit of clustering in sheltered situa- 

 tions on the trunks of trees and under sides of branches dur- 

 ing the day. A crow would approach one of these clusters 

 and eat some of the caterpillars and pupa% pecking and kill- 

 ing many more than it ate, dropping their mutilated forms 

 on the ground. The crows all seem to prefer the pupae to 

 the caterpillars, possibly on account of the disagreeable 

 character of the larval hairs. For a portion of the time the 

 crows were i)icking up pu})a3 as rapidly as a domestic fowl 

 ])icks up corn. One of the young crows while engaged in 

 feeding came within ten feet of the observer. Their feeding 

 could be readily seen, as the caterpillars had stripped nearly 

 all the leaves from the trees. They moved through the trees 

 about and above the observer during most of the time, al- 

 though the old birds flew away for a time, returning later. 

 The young birds appeared to attack the caterpillars and 

 chrysalids more eagerly than did their parents. 



The crows not only search the crevices of the trunks of 

 the trees, but pry about beneath the limbs, showing that they 

 quite readily adapt themselves to feeding in the trees. Not 

 only do crows frequent the more open places where the 



