10 Farmers' Bulletin il02. 



'birds, were present in over a third of the 778 nestling-crow stomachs 

 examined. 



Summing up, it may be said that the character of the insect food 

 of the crow leaves little to be desired and becomes the strongest argu- 

 ment in the bird's favor. While fully applicable to the adult birds, 

 this statement is doubly true of the nestlings, whose rapidly growing 

 bodies require enormous quantities of such readily digestible food 

 as is furnished by soft-bodied insects. 



Spiders, Fishes, Reptiles, Etc. 



In the other animal food of the crow are items that reflect some 

 of the bird's less-admired habits. The aggregate consumption of 

 spiders, millipeds, crustaceans, moUusks, fishes, and carrion may be 

 considered as having a slight influence for good, but the destruction 

 of- beneficial toads, frogs, and small snakes is against the bird. For- 

 tunately, however, the quantity of such material eaten is small, 

 slightly more than 1 per cent of the yearly food. 



Wild Birds and Theib Eggs. 



Because of its depredations on small wild birds and its destruction 

 of the nests and eggs of larger game specie^, the crow has received 

 the condemnation of bird lovers and sportsmen. While stomach 

 examination has, to an extent, verified this accusation, it has at the 

 same time disproved extravagant statements. About a third of 1 

 per cent of the annual food of adult crows and 1.5 per cent of that 

 of nestlings is derived from wild birds and their eggs, and about 1 

 in every 28 adult crows and 1 in every 11 nestlings examined had 

 eaten such food. In the case of the nestlings, however, this ratio 

 gives an exaggerated idea of the work done, as in many instances 

 several members of a brood had fed on parts of the same victim. A 

 mitigating circumstance in connection with the destruction of the 

 eggs of wild birds lies in the fact that most of it is done during the 

 nesting season of the crow — a time early enough in the year to 

 allow the species attacked to lay a second set of eggs that will be 

 little molested by crows. Nevertheless, on game farms and preserves, 

 and in suburban districts where it is the desire to foster small birds, 

 the crow population must be held in check. 



' POUXTBT and ThEIE BgGS. 



The crow's depredations on poultry and their eggs are governed 

 largely by local conditions. The proximity of a crow's nest con- 

 taining a brood of voracious young, the accessibility of some par- 

 ticular poultry yard, and the overdevelopment in certain individual 

 crows of this obnoxious habit, are factors accountable for most of 

 the losses to poultry raisers from crows. Reports of striking simi- 



