THE CROW IN ITS RELATION TO AGRICULTURE. 



E. R. Kalmbach, Assistant Biologist, Bureau of Biological Survey. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 



Distribution and abundance 4 



Life history 5 



Economic status 7 



Animal food 7 



Insects 7 



Spiders, fishes, reptiles, etc_ 10 



Wild birds and their eggs_ 10 



Poultry and their eggs 10 



Mammals 11 



Carrion and the distribu- 

 tion of live-stock dis- 

 eases 11 



Vegetable food 11 



Corn 11 



Other grains 12 



Page. 



Economic status — Continued. 

 Vegetable food — Continued. 



Other crops 12 



Wild fruits 13 



Distribution of seeds 13 



Summary of food habits 13 



Protection of crops and poultry-. 15 



Frightening devices 15 



Deterrents 16 



Scattering grain 17 



Poisoning 17 



Trapping 19 



Shooting 19 



Destroying nests 19 



Summary 19 



|T is doubtful whether any other bird is of 

 great economic importance to the farmer of the 

 eastern United States as the crow. In food 

 habits it is practically omnivorous ; it takes any- 

 thing from the choicest poultry and the tenderest 

 shoots of sprouting grain to carrion and weed 

 seeds, many of which offer at best but a morsel 

 of nourishment. The fact that no less than 656 

 different items have been identified in its food 

 gives some idea of the bird's resourcefulness and 

 its potentiality for good or harm. Some of the 

 complaints against the crow are well-nigh tradi- 

 tional, while a few of its beneficial habits have long been matters 

 of common knowledge. Irreconcilable differences of opinion regard- 

 ing the crow's worth have often been the rule among residents of a 

 community, and it has been only recently that sufficient information 

 has been assembled from most parts of the bird's range to allow a 

 thorough study of its habits.^ 



• For a comprehensive treatise on the economic status of the crow based on the exami- 

 nation of the food contained In 2,118 stomachs, see Bulletin No. 621, U. S. Dept. Agr., 

 " The Crow and Its Relation to Man," by E. E. Kalmbach, 92 pp., 2 pis., 3 figs., Feb. 

 16, 1918, 



3 



