THE CROW AND ITS RELATION" TO MAN. 19 



teridse, small, shiny, hard-shelled beetles that live in carrion and 

 probably feed on other insects found there, were present in a number 

 of stomachs, though never .forming a large part of the food. 



Click beetles (Elateridse) or their larvae, wireworms, were present 

 in 105 stomachs. In no month of the year, however, did these de- 

 structive insects form as much as 1 per cent of the crow's food. A 

 bird taken at Aweme, Manitoba, in May had destroyed 72 wireworms 

 and 1 click beetle. Mr. Stuart Criddle, who collected this bird, noted 

 at the time it was shot that " wireworm beetles were all over the 

 fields, and that the crows could be seen turning up cow dung, sods, 

 and bits of sticks hunting for them." (1912.) 



The late Prof. F. M. Webster, in writing of the natural enemies of 

 wireworms, made the following statement : x 



Among the natural enemies the crow is doubtless the most useful, and what 

 testimony we have on the subject goes to show that elaters and their larva? con- 

 stitute a large portion of its food. B. F. Aston, of White Creek, N. Y., on break- 

 ing up a crow's nest containing the unfledged young, found the crops of each of 

 these to contain 70 or 80 snapping beetles. A more recent observation is recorded 

 by Prof. Theo. G. Lemmon, of Westport, Mo., in a paper read before the State 

 Horticultural Society at its twenty-ninth annual meeting. The professor shot 

 and examined the contents of the crops of a number of crows about Lexington, 

 Mo., where the ravages of wireworms had been very severe, and found that they 

 contained a sufficient number of these insects to warrant the assurance that 

 the crow is the untiring enemy of the wireworm. 



From such reports it would appear that the crow is a more effec- 

 tive enemy of the wireworm than stomach examination indicates. It 

 doubtless does good work during outbreaks of these insects, and were 

 it possible to collect material under such circumstances much positive 

 evidence of this trait could be secured. 



A few long-horned and metallic wood-boring beetles (Cerambycidse 

 and Buprestidae) , stag beetles (Lucanidse), leaf beetles (Chryso- 

 melidas), aquatic beetles (Dytiscidse and Hydrophilidse) , and dark- 

 ling beetles (Tenebrionidse) also enter into the crow's diet, but in no 

 case is their destruction of great importance. Beetles of small size 

 are practically immune to the attack of crows. A single ladybird 

 {Megilla maculata) , for instance, is the only one of this fairly abun- 

 dant family found in the entire series of 2,118 stomachs. The smaller 

 species of leaf beetles also were lacking, though abundant and avail- 

 able in many of the situations in which the crow habitually feeds. 



Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets). 



In many respects Orthoptera constitute the most important insect 

 food of the crow. In bulk they are exceeded by beetles by only a 

 fraction of 1 per cent, while the damage they inflict far exceeds that 



^Mo Agr. Exp. Sta., Bull. 46, p. 228, 1893, 



