56 



IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



nothing on testimony, but follow- 

 ing the^injunction of "proving all 

 things", declared "zat ze crow 

 will do, but ze buzzard is not fit 

 to eat". Still, with the annual 

 recurring of the annual political 

 conventions, there are numbers of 

 workers who eat crow and de- 

 clare that it is good. 



If the crow- is not destined to 

 become a food product, its agency 

 in- making life for man more 

 tolerable than it would be 

 without it, is n^i: t^ b^ so 

 briefly dismissed. It seems to 

 have been the belief of primitive 

 man, that the crow was more 

 immediately under the care of the 

 gods than any other bird; hence 

 the Roman augur's regard for it, 

 which should give his name to 

 the city, was by Romulus and 

 Remus determined by the num- 

 ber of crows either might observe. 

 A land where many crows were 

 found was a land blessed of the 

 gods, that is, it was a land where 

 the conditions 'were favorable to 

 man's existence. But the time 

 of this belief has gone by, and 

 man wants proof of his state- 

 ments rather than sentimental 

 superstitions. Is the crow help- 

 ful to human existence ? 



In the New England states, 

 many of their largest fields of 

 corn, containing as high as two or 



three acres, are at times almost 

 ruined by the depredations of the 

 crow; digging out the newly : 

 planted seed and eating it and i 

 pulling up the new blades and 

 devouring the kernel at the root. 



Some men indeed believe that 

 this latter plan is the crow's 

 means of getting at worms that 

 are preying on the corn, and as a 

 proof of their position they tell us 

 they find the grain of corn still 

 intact with the stalk. Of course, 

 scare-crows reduce the losses 

 which would otherwise be inflict- ^ 

 ed; at the same time furnishing 

 nesting" places for smaller birds. 

 A still better method of guarding 

 against the ravages of the crow, 

 is to stretch a number of twine 

 strings both ways across the corn- 

 field, which the crow will sus- 

 pect to be a large trap or snare 

 and avoid, but will furnish mater- 

 ial out of which orioles and many 

 other birds may construct nests, 

 as the device is not intended to 

 frighten any bird but the crow. 



Within half a mile of my house 

 there is a rookery or resort of the 

 crows, where at certain seasons 

 several hundreds congregate at 

 nightfall and return to their sev- 

 eral fields of labor the next morn- 

 ing, making such a cawing at sep- 

 arating as to often disturb my 

 morning sleep, yet in all the 



