LAND BIRDS. 425 
the stomach examination, to form a rather constant item in the diet. Un- 
doubtedly the Crow occasionally destroys the nests of meadow mice, 
particularly in early spring when the snow is melting away, and it then 
devours the helpless young, thereby doing some positive good. It must 
be remembered, however, that the normal mortality among field mice 
and meadow mice is considerable and the Crow unquestionably consumes 
hundreds of these little rodents, picked up as carrion. The same is true 
of frogs, toads, snakes and fish; for although any of these may be taken 
alive when opportunity offers, it is unquestionably true that the great 
majority of such remains in the stomachs are from individuals found dead 
by the Crow, thus merely representing so much carrion. The habit already 
referred to, of haunting the margins of pond, stream, and sea, points 
plainly to this fact in the Crow’s economy, and nothing is more certain 
than that it watches the shores and patrols the water’s edge continually 
on the lookout for such food. Similiarly when a stream, pond, or pool 
dries up the Crow is always on hand to get the dead or dying water animals 
thus left at its mercy. In all this work (with the possible exception of that 
on mice) no good of any importance is done, since the materials thus 
consumed would have been effectually disposed of by the various carrion- 
eating insects or by speedy dessication and decay, without injury of any 
kind to man. 
The relation of the Crow to our wild birds and to domestic poultry is 
of decided importance. Perhaps no single trait has been more generally 
noted or more uniformly condemned than its habit of robbing the nests 
of other birds; not simply those of the robin, thrush, meadowlark and other 
song birds, but those of the quail, partridge, wild duck, sea gull, and various 
other birds or waterfowl, in fact the nest of any bird whatever, provided 
it can secure the eggs or young without too much danger to itself. The 
skill with which this is done is often amazing. Crows will pass back and 
forth in the vicinity of birds nests which seem to be plainly exposed and 
of which the Crows must know the location, yet day after day they will 
ignore these nests until precisely the right moment arrives, when almost 
invariably they descend upon the nest in the absence of the parents and 
devour or carry away for their young whatever the nest may contain. 
The fact that the stomachs show so small a percentage of the remains 
of wild birds and eggs is readily explained by a consideration of the facts. 
In the first place the eggs usually are devoured at once by the Crow, not. 
carried to the nest to be fed to the young; and in most cases the shells are 
entirely discarded, only the soft interior of the egg being swallowed. Again, 
the unhatched chicks or the nestlings devoured by the Crow or fed to the 
young contain few or no hard parts which can escape digestion and remain 
to be used as evidence against the criminal. The beak, bones and claws 
are all soft and in most cases the feathers are too small and undeveloped 
to be identified. Thus it happens that Crows may feed extensively upon 
the eggs and young of other birds, while the stomach contents may give 
little or no evidence against them. The complaints from sportsmen and 
naturalists alike, are almost unanimous in condemning the Crow for the 
destruction of immense numbers of the eggs and young of game birds 
and waterfowl; and all the evidence collected goes to show that, aside 
from climatic conditions, no single factor is so important as the Crow in 
reducing the number of these birds. 
It is now known with certainty that the Crow destroys large numbers 
of chickens, ducklings and the young of other domesticated poultry. 
