APPENDIX. 375 



From C. S. Paine, East Bethel, Vt. : 



Crows come into our shade trees early in the morning and take the eggs and young of the 

 oriole and robin ; I think that over half of the nests of our small birds are destroyed by them. 



From D. Y. Overton, Burlington. Iowa : 



The common crow, especially at the east, is an inveterate robber of birds' nests, and also de- 

 stroys their young. I have seen him at the nests of the robin with the eggs in his mouth ; and 

 have seen him with young bluejaysjn his beak as he took them from the nest. 



From Charles A. Davis, Burlington, Vt. : 



I have seen crows catch and carry to their nests eight or ten young bank swallows which were 

 feathered out. 



From Samuel N. Rhoades, Haddonfield, N. J. : 



The crow steals eggs and young birds from the purple grackle, red-winged blackbird, robin, 

 kingbird, Carolina dove, quail, and woodcock. It also destroys the eggs of several species of 

 herons. 



Prof. D. E. Lantz, of Manhattan, Kansas, writes : 



I have not known the crow to trouble the poultry-yard in Kansas, but it is a noted robber of 

 the eggs of quail and pinnated grouse. 



Dr. A. B. MacCrea, of Berwick, Pa., writes: 



A friend was mowing in the meadow this summer (1885) and uncovered a quail's nest contain- 

 ing some twenty eggs. He concluded to place them under a hen and went to the barn for a 

 basket ; when he returned a crow was finishing his dinner on the last egg. 



In all the dark history of the crow's relations to other birds there is nothing which 

 can be fairly called a bright spot, and only here and there a record is found which 

 serves to render the page a little less gloomy. One of these grains of comfort is 

 found in the fact that in its' wholesale attacks on other birds a few species suffer 

 which are scarcely better than itself. The bluejay and the purple grackle are known 

 to destroy the eggs and young of smaller birds, and their own nests are frequently 

 pillaged by the more powerful crow. Under favorable circumstances crows are 

 known to destroy the eggs and young of the English sparrow, and they have done 

 good service in this way about the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D. C., 

 where it is no uncommon sight during the summer to see a crow (most often per- 

 haps the Fish Crow) feeding on the young of these birds. 



INSECT FOOD OF THE CROW. 



In attempting to study the insect food of the crow, two different questions present 

 themselves at the outset. These are: (a) How many insects does the crow eat? 

 and (6) What kinds of insects does it eat? The first question was answered in a 

 general way more than half a century ago, and there is no reason now to deny the 

 oft-repeated statement that the crow feeds largely on insects. The second question, 

 however, is not only much more important, but much less easily answered ; for not 

 all insects are injurious, and comparatively few persons can discriminate between 

 the useful and harmful, especially when watching them from a distance or examin- 

 ing those which have been crushed and swallowed by a bird. 



While, therefore, the field-notes of casual observers may help materially to answer 

 the question as to the extent to which the crow feeds on insects in general, they can 

 seldom be relied upon for an accurate knowledge of the insect species destroyed. As 

 already stated, this latter question must be answered mainly by the critical study of 

 the stomach-contents of large numbers of crows. Nevertheless, the accumulated 

 observations of years as to the crow's manner of feeding, together with notes on 

 places most visited at certain times, and the insects most abundant in those places 

 at such times, must not be disregarded, many such observations being of the great- 

 est practical value. 



In the course of the present investigation on the crow, hundreds of notes on its 

 insect-eating habits have been received from correspondents, and in many cases the 

 observations are of greatest interest and value. Not a few of these notes relate to 

 observations made under peculiarly favorable circumstances, and though we cannot 

 feel perfectly sure of the correct identification, for example, of the Hessian fly and 

 army-worm, we see no reason to doubt the statements of any farmer as to grasshop- 



