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



infallible. Such local conditions as the proximity of their nests or 

 roosts, abundance of natural food supply, availability of cultivated 

 crops, and the varying boldness of these birds in different localities 

 are factors requiring varying methods of control. A sure preventive 

 of losses from crows in one locality often utterly fails in another, 

 and likewise a method of protection may work admirably for a time 

 only to fail completely when once the birds become acquainted with it 

 or learn to avoid its consequences. 



LEGISLATION. 



In the game laws of most of the Western States, where the crow is 

 too scarce to be of great economic importance, its name does not 

 appear among the exceptions to protection, where in other parts of 

 the country it is usually listed. The crow is thus protected in Ari- 

 zona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, 

 Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. In some of these States, however, 

 provision is made whereby the owner of crops subject to injury by 

 crows may kill these birds when they are doing damage. Of the 

 Eastern States, Delaware is the only one in which absolute protec- 

 tion is afforded, no provision being made for the destruction of crows 

 under any circumstance; while in the remaining States the crow is 

 either specifically exempted from protection or is allowed to be shot 

 by the owner or lessee of property on which it is doing injury. 



Wherever crows have been troublesome the enactment of bounty 

 laws for their control has been common. Rewards for the destruc- 

 tion of the birds have been offered by States, counties, townships, and 

 in some instances by communities of farmers or by sportsmen's asso- 

 ciations. Among the earliest laws enacted by the colonial govern- 

 ments were those dealing with the reduction of crows by bounties, 

 and a perusal of recent statutes will show that this method is still 

 popular. 



In 1904, Rhode Island passed a bounty law which provided for the 

 payment of 25 cents apiece for crows and certain birds of prey. In- 

 diana authorized, in 1911, a bounty of 10 cents a head for the birds 

 and 5 cents an egg in lots of not less than 10. All counties in Kansas 

 pay 5 cents for the birds and 1 cent apiece for the eggs. West Vir- 

 ginia allows 10 cents apiece for the birds. Illinois, Maryland, Minne- 

 sota, North Carolina (one county), and Wisconsin also have had 

 bounty laws in effect within the last nine years. Most frequently 

 payments are optional with the counties, although in some cases, as 

 in Kansas, it is mandatory. 



At times the management of game preserves or farms offers re- 

 wards for the destruction of these birds in the immediate vicinity of 

 reservations. In this connection Jonathan B. Gadsden, manager of 



