BIRDS 



251 



ers and fruit-growers, have been proved to do much more 

 good than harm. Some few birds have been proved to 

 be, on the whole, harmful. An investigation of the food 

 habits of the crow, a bird of ill-repute among farmers, 

 based on an examination of 909 stomachs, shows that 

 about 29 per cent of the food for the year consists of 



Fig. 204. — Horned larks, Olocoris alpcstris, and snowflakes, Plectrophenax 

 nivalis. (Photograph from life by H. W. Menke; permission of 

 Macmillan Co.) 



grain, of which corn constitutes something more than 

 21 per cent, the greatest quantity being eaten in the 

 three winter months. All of this must be either waste 

 grain picked up in fields and roads, or corn stolen from 

 cribs and shocks. May, the month of sprouting corn, 

 shows a slight increase over the other spring and summer 

 months. On the other hand, the loss of grain is offset by 

 the destruction of insects. These constitute more than 



