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



Complaints most frequently heard against the crow concern its 

 depredations on corn. Injury to this crop may be either to the 

 sprouting grain, to the grain when in " the milk," or " roasting-ear," 

 stage, or when the ripened corn has been stacked in shocks. Of the 

 three, the last form of injury appears to be the least serious. The 

 pulling of sprouting com, fortunately, may be largely prevented 

 by the use of deterrents (see p. 74),. but the damage to the grain 

 when in the " roasting-ear " stage constitutes the most vexatious form 

 of damage of which the crow is guilty. This results not so much 

 from the grain the crow actually eats, as from the subsequent injury 

 caused by water entering the ears from which the husks have been 

 partially torn. 



Stomach analysis has shown that corn is without question the 

 staple article of diet of the adult crow, and even the older nestlings 

 are fed a considerable quantity (see p. 67). This grain constituted 

 88.42 per cent of the yearly food of the 1,340 adult crows examined. 

 In July, the month in which practically no growing corn is available, 

 the monthly percentage recorded reached its lowest point, 9.13. 

 Late in August corn in the " roasting-ear " stage becomes accessible 

 over much of the area in which crows' stomachs were collected, a 

 fact shown by its increased proportion in the food, 17.96 per cent. 

 September is represented by an even greater quantity, 29.60 per cent, 

 much of which was doubtless pilfered from the ripening crop. In 

 October corn exceeds all other foods combined (54.33 per cent), but 

 the harvest, with its attendant waste of grain, may account for a 

 portion. Late November and all of December, January, and Feb- 

 ruary are times of dire privation for the crow and the fact that it 

 can find in these four months subsistence mainly from waste corn, 

 sufficient to supply 63.93, 65.00, 51.95, and 43.19 per cent, respectively, 

 of its food, speaks well for the persistence and frugality of the bird. 

 In March and April less quantities are taken (36.85 and 35.28 per 

 cent, respectively), and these also may be relegated largely to the 

 category of waste grain. Some of the corn eaten in April may have 

 been from the sprouting crop, especially in the case of crows col- 

 lected in the Southern States. Had a greater series of stomachs 

 been collected in the South, more consideration would have to be 

 given to the earlier planting and sprouting time in that region. In 

 May, however, when corn formed a substantial portion of the diet 

 (33.26 per cent), a considerable part was doubtless secured from 

 newly planted fields. But when it is considered that in June corn 

 still formed over a fifth (20.53 per cent) of the food, at a time when 

 comparatively little can be obtained in this way and when even less 



