THE CROW AND ITS RELATION TO MAN. 47 



large fields, especially when the actual cause of the injury has es- 

 caped notice. 



Dr. S. D. Judd, relating his personal experience with corn-pull- 

 ing crows, has said: 1 



The crow is by all odds the worst pilferer of the cornfield. * * * In 

 1899 the replanting was more extensive than usual, requiring on the 39-acre 

 field 1 bushel 2% pecks, 46 per cent of the 3i bushels originally planted. This 

 unusual ratio was probably caused by the failure of the cherry crop. 



L. E. Wilcox, of But'terfield, Ark., complains that — 



in this immediate neighborhood we have been over.run with crows. They have 

 destroyed fully 10 per cent of the corn crop by picking into the ears during 

 the roasting-ear stage, eating some ears nearly up ; and rains afterwards 

 rotted the rest of the ear.- (1912.) 



From New Jersey comes this account submitted by Justus von 

 Lengerke : 



The damage done by crows to the little mountain farmer by pulling seed 

 aud sprouting corn is considerable, and total crops have been ruined thereby, 

 while others are badly damaged, necessitating a partial replanting, when 

 the corn will mature at different periods. They also do some damage to corn 

 when in the shock. (1911.) 



E. P. Robinson, of Packer, Conn., states that the crow does great 

 damage by pulling corn when it first appears above ground and until 

 it is 10 inches high, and again in August and September before cut- 

 ting. He also says that it damages corn fully $5 an acre in eastern 

 Connecticut each year, and that some fields are wholly destroyed. 



Drawing conclusions, then, from both stomach analysis and field 

 observations, it is evident that the crow is accountable for consider- 

 able direct damage to the corn crop. While careful interpretation 

 of the results of laboratory investigation reveals the fact that this 

 grain, taken when sprouting, when in the " roasting-ear " stage, or 

 before harvest, forms a relatively small portion of the crow's annual 

 supply of corn, such circumstances can not mitigate the evil done. 

 Much may be done, however, by treating the seed grain with deter- 

 rents to make the sprouting crop largely immune to attack; fright- 

 ening devices help some while the grain is ripening (see p. 74) ; and 

 prompt harvesting and proper housing of the grain will prevent 

 much of the loss at present suffered, especially in some of the 

 Southern States where corn in shocks frequently is left standing all 

 winter, tempting provender for roving bands of underfed crows. 



OTHER GRAIN. 



Grain other than corn formed 12.70 per cent of the food of adult 

 crows. Wheat, oats, and buckwheat constituted practically all of 



1 Judd, S. D., Birds of a Maryland Farm : Bull. 17, Biological Survey, U. S. Dept. Agr., 

 p. 65, 1902. 



