THE CROW AND ITS RELATION TO MAN. 29 



economy of man, while salamanders, the least valuable of the three, 

 are found in damp places, where occasionally a foraging crow, turn- 

 ing over sticks and stones, may find them. In the examination of 

 stomachs it was found difficult in many cases, where only a small 

 portion of the skeleton remained, to distinguish between frogs and 

 toads, but enough identifications were made to establish the fact 

 that frogs greatly outnumbered toads in the food of the crow. The 

 crow's favorite habit of hunting in marshy areas probably accounts 

 for much of this, and then, too, toads are largely nocturnal in their 

 habits, remaining in concealment during most of the day. The fact 

 that the latter, owing to their clumsiness, frequently meet with fatal 

 accidents warrants the assumption that a portion of the toads eaten 

 must be classified as carrion. Amphibians of various kinds were 

 present in 153 of the 1,340 stomachs of adult crows, in 86 of which 

 they were identified as frogs. In only 3 were toads recognized, 

 though doubtless some of the remains not generally determined were 

 of these creatures. Salamanders were detected in 29 stomachs. 



WILD BIKDS AND THEIR EGGS. 



The crow's antagonism to other native birds has been the basis of 

 complaints against it from the earliest days of American ornithology, 

 and the various changes that agriculture and the general advance of 

 civilization have made upon the environments of many birds have 

 had a tendency even to aggravate this evil. The establishing of game 

 farms and preserves, where large numbers of game birds with their 

 eggs and young are confined to comparatively small areas, has 

 brought this obnoxious habit of the crow to the immediate notice 

 of game wardens and game raisers. In public parks and rural dis- 

 tricts where the crow has had protection along with other species, it 

 has at times assumed the role of a most persistent nest robber, making 

 daily visits in early morning hours among the trees and shrubs in 

 search of nests of smaller species; and throughout our agricultural 

 districts in general, where formerly much of the timber and brush 

 was an effective cover for birds, the crow now has a better chance to 

 ply this nefarious work. Complaints are made also of the crow's 

 predatory habits in environments unaltered by the hand of man, as 

 in nesting colonies of herons, rails, ducks, and other waterfowl. 

 From this" it would seem that the crow's bird-killing and nest-despoil- 

 ing habit is not a recently acquired one, although modern conditions 

 doubtless have aided the bird considerably. 



In the search for evidence bearing on this trait of the crow stom- 

 ach analysis alone does not always tell the whole story ; it is impor- 

 tant, however, especially in refuting wild and groundless accusations 

 sometimes made against the crow by persons who have let a few 

 personal observations, limited usually to restricted areas and peculiar 



