THE CROW AND ITS RELATION TO MAN". 49 



H. A. Surface, former State Economic Zoologist of Pennsylvania, 

 reported the following: 



I note for example that crows have done a great deal of damage on ad- 

 joining wheat fields during the winter time by eating almost every leaf of the 

 wheat that was above the ground or snow. One wheat field on our place, 

 which should be quite green, is now about bare. (1912.) 



Henry W. Marsden, of San Diego, Cal., complains of the destruc- 

 tion of wheat when in the shock (1912). Edwin Loreman, of Morri- 

 son, 111., reports damage to both wheat and oats, which are scratched 

 out at sprouting time (1912) ; and H. Martyn Mieklem, of Shipman, 

 Va., writes that " crows eat quantities of seed wheat and seed oats 

 when the grain is imperfectly covered. Most writers appear to over- 

 look this." 



Oats. 



Oats occurred in 114 of the 1,340 stomachs of adult crows, an 

 average of about 1 in every 12, or half the number in which wheat 

 was found. When it is considered that oats are readily available at 

 all times of year in horse droppings, from which also the birds may 

 secure coprophagous insects, the quantity of this grain in their diet 

 need not greatly concern the farmer. Only occasional reports of 

 crows attacking the sprouting crop have come to hand. The habit 

 must be considered one. of the minor offenses of the crow, from 

 which individual farmers here and there suffer. 



Other small grains. 



Buckwheat was found in 107 stomachs, but if a larger proportion 

 of the birds had been collected in areas where this grain is exten- 

 sively grown, it probably would have been found in a far greater 

 number of stomachs. The seeds of Polygonacese are a favorite food 

 of birds generally, so it would not be surprising to find that the large 

 meaty kernels of buckwheat are an even greater attraction to crows 

 than stomach analysis seems to indicate. That buckwheat is eagerly 

 eaten was noted especially in a series of 45 crows collected in New 

 Jersey in March; this was prior to the sowing time, so that the 

 buckwheat eaten must have been either waste from the preceding 

 year's crop or from volunteer plants along roadsides. Thirty-eight 

 of these birds had eaten buckwheat, which formed 66 per cent of their 

 food, and 11 of them had subsisted exclusively upon it. Another 

 series of 100 birds collected at the same place during October revealed 

 but little consumption of buckwheat. This grain, eaten by only 23 

 of these birds, constituted 6.15 per cent of their diet. The only report 

 of damage to this crop is from D. W. Southard, who complains that 

 14653°— 18— Bull. 621 4 



