4 BULLETIN 621, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



District of Columbia and southern Illinois. The Florida crow (C. b. 

 ■pascuus Coues) has a limited range throughout, peninsular Florida. 

 The two remaining species of the genus Corvus are the maritime 

 forms, the fish crow (Corvus ossifragus Wilson) and the northwestern 

 crow (Corvus caurinus Baird). The former is restricted to the At- 

 lantic seacoast from Long Island south to Florida and westward 

 along the Gulf coast to Texas ; while the latter occupies the northwest 

 coastal region from Puget Sound to southern Alaska. 



In this bulletin the name " crow " has "been used to cover the four 

 subspecifically different forms recognized under Corvus orachy- 

 rhynchos. The food habits of these subspecies are essentially the 

 same, varying only to the extent naturally occasioned by the varying 

 character of the food supply in the different parts of an area as great 

 as that covered by their combined ranges. In some of the Western 

 States where the crow appears only as an occasional breeder it has 

 but little economic significance. Among such areas may be men- 

 tioned all of Nevada, the greater parts of Arizona, New Mexico, 

 Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho, and eastern Washington and 

 Oregon. The bird is only locally abundant in California. The 

 western parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska support 

 very few crows, while Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, 

 as well as the Gulf States of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and 

 Louisiana, embrace large areas where crows are not common. 



A consideration of the economic value of the crow in the United 

 States, judging from the average yearly abundance, may therefore 

 be confined principally to the States along the Atlantic slope of the 

 Appalachians and those in the central and upper Mississippi Valley. 

 In the former area the States south of Virginia are less abundantly 

 supplied with these birds during the breeding season than those to 

 the north, while in winter the States of North Dakota, South Dakota, 

 Minnesota, and the northern parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, and 

 Maine harbor but few. 



LIFE HISTORY. 



A brief statement of the life history of the crow is necessary if 

 its varied activities at different seasons of the year are to be appre- 

 ciated and if the significance of its change of food habits from- 

 month to month is to be understood. A clear understanding of the 

 breeding habits of the crow is essential also to a correct interpreta- 

 tion of the food habits of the young; and scarcely less important in 

 this connection is the problem of the bird's migration and roosting 

 habits in the colder months, when the normal crow population of 

 certain sections is swelled manyfold by countless hordes from the 

 north. 



