50 BULLETIN 621, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



crows inflict considerable injury to buckwheat in the vicinity of 

 Gilboa, N. Y. 



Injury to kafir corn (sorghum) in autumn has been reported from 

 Kansas and Oklahoma. These depredations usually have been in the 

 vicinity of roosts, where, during the roosting period, many thousands 

 of crows are congregated and day after day feed over a comparatively 

 small area. Stomach analysis sheds little light on this habit, as only 

 5 stomachs contained the grain, but an idea of the severity of the 

 attacks may be gained from the following communication from 

 George W. Seigel, of Chetopa, Kans. : 



As to kafir corn, which is to become a staple crop here, they [crows] simply 

 eat all the grain. The kafir fodder, which is a fine stover feed, is of such a 

 juicy nature that it will not stand stacking. When the crows were taking ours 

 so persistently in the shock we hauled it in and stacked it in the barn. This 

 molded so badly that the fodder was not fit to use and what was stacked out- 

 doors rotted. 



F. F. Crevecoeur, of Onaga, Kans., reports that crows damaged 

 about 50 bushels of kafir corn on one farm near a crow roost. 

 Rye was found in six stomachs. 



MISCELLANEOUS CEOPS. 



The crow is guilty of damage to man}^ crops which, from the 

 nature of their vegetable composition, can not be detected or accu- 

 rately separated from other items of the stomach contents. Among 

 these may be mentioned numerous fleshy fruits, as apples, pears, and 

 prunes; the rind and pulp of melons; the meat of nuts which have 

 been partly digested and fail to have fragments of the shell asso- 

 ciated; and the fragmentary remains of some tubers. Though 

 many of these have been satisfactorily identified in stomachs, the 

 presence of small quantities intimately mixed with other material is 

 probably many times overlooked. Here again conclusions must be 

 based to a certain extent on the evidence furnished by field observers. 



Though 186 of the 1,340 adult crows had fed on what appeared to 

 be cultivated fruit, 47 of these records were made from the 1st of 

 November to the end of May, when the fruit eaten must necessarily 

 have been waste. Frozen apples or inferior pumpkins left in the 

 fields after harvest are highly prized by foraging crows late in 

 winter and apparently are sources from which some of the birds 

 examined had secured food. The seeds of certain cultivated fruits, 

 as blackberries, mulberries, grapes, and strawberries, are so similar 

 in appearance to wild varieties growing in the same areas and ripen- 

 ing at the same time, that it was impossible satisfactorily to classify 

 many of them. It is highly probable that many of the fruits sup- 

 posed to have been pilfered from the farmer's crop really were secured 

 from nature's ample supply. Evidence furnished by stomach analy- 



