Extracts from Diary of Otto Widmunn 19 



thrown up), which are lying under the trees where they 

 roost and on the sand where they gather. These pellets 

 show that very few mice enter the bill of fare of the 

 Crow. But they also prove that the Crow has no stomach 

 for grain. Large pieces of maize and entire kernels of 

 oats and wheat are thrown out undigested, and even 

 the acorn, which must often appease their hunger, is 

 found intact in the pellets. 



The Crow eats anything and everything, when pressed 

 by hunger, but it prefers animal matter, and it makes 

 no difference whether it is fresh or old. It turns over 

 the old droppings of cattle to see if there is anything 

 eatable underneath. It devours a rotten apple for a 

 change of diet, and eats the chicken without asking how 

 long it has been dead or with what disease it died. 



When they are so lucky as to find the dead body of a 

 horse, they return to it every day until the bones are 

 perfectly clean. I have even heard of the remarkable 

 sight, when the cadaver of a man was seen driving down 

 on an ice field, surrounded and torn to pieces by hordes 

 of Crows. 



The Crows like our climate, because we have, as a rule, 

 very little snow. The snow which precedes our cold 

 spells comes with a high wind and is, therefore, drifted. 

 Snow which falls heavily later in the season does not 

 stay long. After a fresh snowfall, or during a sudden 

 cold snap, the Crow's resource is the river. For miles 

 and miles along its shores Crows abound, watching at 

 the water's edge, visiting the sandbars and hovering over 

 the river, fishing from its surface choice morsels with 

 which they make hastily for a safe place to eat in peace. 



The most animated picture is to be had in times when 

 the river is full of floating ice. At such times it is fairly 

 alive with Crows all day. Sitting on the edge of floating 

 ice fields, they drift down for miles, watching the agitated 

 waves until they bring to light the eagerly sought for 



