404 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BERMUDAS. 



distant isles, the destruction of the Crow becomes a serious 

 question. 



In a paper upon the Colorado Beetle, by Dr. Robert 

 Brown, F.L.S., published in the Live Stock Journal, of 

 July 20th, 1877, he winds up his remarks in the following 

 words : — " On the whole, looking at all the remedies, and 

 all the checks for the Colorado Beetle, we are inclined to 

 put more reliance on the common Sparrow and the Crow ; 

 and if the present panic only results in farmers learning 

 the value of the insectivorous birds, it will have done an 

 excellent service to him ; it will have taught him a lesson 

 we fear he is sadly in need of." 



This, of course, applies to Corvus corone, the European 

 Crow, and to the Rook ; but the habits of the two Crows 

 are so alike in this respect, that I consider it would be a 

 fatal error to destroy the few remaining Crows still found in 

 Bermuda. 



Of all the native birds which should be protected by 

 law, and allowed to increase, none can compare with 

 Corvus americanus in importance. A single Crow rendering 

 more service to the tiller of the soil, than a dozen native 

 Red or Blue Birds. 



Let me express a sincere hope that these ornamental 

 and useful Crows, which have held their own from the first 

 discovery of Bermuda, and probably for centuries before 

 that event, may not become the victims of the unwise and 

 cruel legislation which has proscribed and sentenced them 

 to extirpation. The Crow possesses a natural prescriptive 

 right of existence in these islands, much older than that of 

 man himself, and no right-thinking mind would willingly 

 deprive it of the life and sustenance which a beneficent 

 Creator has been pleased to bestow upon it. 



It is with sorrow and regret that I record these 

 sentiments. 



It would be well if Longfellow's beautiful poem on the 



