68 BULLETIN" 621, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



OTHER VEGETABLE FOOD. 



While vegetable matter other than corn forms 4.58 per cent of the 

 food of nestling crows, over half of this (2.32 per cent) may properly 

 be classed as rubbish. This material, composed of bits of rotten wood, 

 grass fibers, and leaves inadvertently picked up by the parent birds 

 along with food for their young, is readily swallowed by their raven- 

 ous offspring, who are not troubled by doubts as to the ability of their 

 digestive organs to care for anything possessing the slightest sem- 

 blance of food. The yearly total of material classed under the head- 

 ings of grass and weed seeds, cultivated fruits, and wild fruits in 

 no case formed as much as 1 per cent. The cultivated fruit eaten 

 during the nestling* period is largely waste from the preceding year, 

 and while some of the wheat and oats may be from the sprouting 

 crop, the quantitjf actually secured from such sources is negligible. 



DISTRIBUTION OF LIVE-STOCK DISEASES. 



Because of its carrion-eating habits, the crow has been accused, 

 along with the turkey buzzard, of being a potent agency in the 

 transmission of diseases of domestic animals. Complaints of this 

 nature have come most frequently from the Southern and South- 

 western States, and in some sections farmers have regarded the crow 

 as a most unwelcome visitor in the vicinity of live stock. The 

 alleged distribution of hog cholera has been the commonest criticism. 



Doubtless the transmission of hog cholera by the crow is possible 

 either through virus carried on the feet, bills, or other parts of the 

 bird or through the deposition of infected excreta after the bird has 

 been feeding on the body of an animal which died of the disease. 



However, by the immediate burial of the dead bodies of diseased 

 animals, and the employment of most rigid sanitary measures, the 

 objects which usually attract these birds may be eliminated. The 

 free use of disinfectants, covering all matter that might be of food 

 value to the crow, together with the employment of some of the 

 usual methods of frightening these birds, such as a network of 

 strings over pens containing diseased animals, should prove effective 

 means of keeping the birds from the premises and reduce the danger 

 from this source to a minimum. It is well to remember that numer- 

 ous agencies, including dogs, cats, and innumerable insects, are 

 always at work in the spread of such diseases. Thorough methods 

 of sanitation will tend to make these also innocuous. 



DISTRIBUTION OF SEEDS. 



Unlike those of our more granivorous species, as sparrows and gal- 

 linaceous birds ; the stomachs of crows are not capable of grinding 

 and assimilating hard seeds. Consequently, the food value of many 



