IOWA ORNITHOLOGIST. 



57 



years I can remember but once 

 they have taken corn to any ser- 

 ious extent. Some fifteen years 

 ago they attacked a twenty acre 

 field of corn and not only took 

 the first planting but several re- 

 plantings. The farmer, with two 

 young men — his nephews — spent 

 day after day replanting the corn 

 the crows would take and with 

 guns at hand would try to destroy 

 his persecutors, but I believe 

 their shotguns in no instance had 

 range enough to reach the crows 

 — which were always in a distant 

 part of the field. 



Often in spring time the farm- 

 ing community is startled by 

 shrill cries of distress proceeding 

 from the watchful house-wife 

 frightening crows from the poul- 

 try yard. But as the season ad- 

 vances the crow grows ashamed of 

 these outcries, and proceeds with 

 more caution to visit the poultry 

 yard and avoids disturbing the 

 housekeepers already overtaxed 

 with numerous cares. A little 

 care on his part enables him to 

 secure as many eggs from the 

 barn-yard, and at the same time 

 leave the weary house-wife in 

 peace. 



Some crows capture mice, grass- 

 hoppers, crickets, white grubs, 

 etc., for the Ornithologist of the 

 .\gricultural Department has dis- 



sected hundreds of crows and 

 found the above named food in 

 their stomachs, but the crow also 

 feeds on the berries of the poison 

 ivy, voiding the seeds broadcast 

 over the land and thus filling it 

 with this, and also other noxious 

 plants. The crow also- destroys 

 the eggs and young of many birds, 

 such as the quail, prairie hen, 

 meadow-lark, oriole, and in fact 

 of almost all birds, and by such 

 destruction prevents the hundreds 

 of birds thus destroyed, from do- 

 ing far more good at clearing up 

 the insects and other pests that 

 prey on the farmer's crops, than 

 the crows themselves can do. 

 After all, is it not easy to answer 

 the question, ' 'Is the crow an in- 

 jury or a help to man ? " 



Many small birds have nests 

 and rear their young in the same 

 copse of brushland where the 

 crows by hundreds resort. Yet I 

 have seen a crow rifle the nest of 

 a meadow-lark that had been ex- 

 posed by the mowing machines, 

 and the pitiful notes of the mother 

 lark did ^not save one of her help- 

 less brood from the monster. 



Sometimes a crow seems to be- 

 come a rogue to a much greater 

 extent than is common. One 

 such visited my door yard every 

 day, several years since. It 

 evidently had been shot at, for 



