Bird Study 131 



The crow is a general feeder and will eat almost any food ; generally, 

 however, it finds its food upon the ground. The food given to nestlings 

 is very largely insects, and many pests are thus destroyed. The crows 

 damage the farmer by pulling the sprouting com and by destroying the 

 eggs and young of poultry. They also do much harm by destroying the 

 eggs and nestlings of our native birds which are beneficial to the farmer; 

 they also do some harm by distributing the seeds of poison ivy and other 

 noxious plants. All these must be set down in the account against the 

 crow, but on the credit side must be placed the fact that it does a tremen- 

 dous amount of good work for the farmer by eating injurious insects, 

 especially the grubs and cut-worms which work in the ground, destroying 

 the roots of grasses and grains. It also kills many mice and other rodents 

 which are destructive to crops. 



The best method of preventing crows from taking sprouting com is to 

 tar the seed com, which is planted around the edge of the field. 



If any of the pupils in your school have had any experience with tame 

 crows they will relate interesting incidents of the love of the crow for glit- 

 tering objects. I once knew a tame crow which stole all of the thimbles 

 in the house and buried them in the garden; he would watch to see when 

 a thimble was laid aside when the sewing was dropped, and would seize it 

 almost immediately. This same crow persisted in taking the clothes-pins 

 off the line and burying them, so that he was finally imprisoned on wash- 

 days. He was fond of playing marbles with a little boy of the family. 

 The boy would shoot a marble into a hole and then Billy, the crow, would 

 take a marble in his beak and drop it into the hole. The bird understood 

 the game perfectly and was highly indignant if the boy took his turn and 

 made shots twice in succession. 



References — The American Crow, Barrows & Schwartz, Bulletin 

 No. 6, Division of Ornithology, U. S. Department of Agriculture; Birds 

 in Relation to Man, Weed & Dearbom; Bird Neighbors, Blanchan; 

 Birds of Villages and Field, Merriam; Outdoor Studies, Needham. 



LESSON XXXI 

 The Crow 



Leading thought — The crow has the keenest intelligence of any of our 

 common birds. It does good work for us and also does damage. We 

 should study its ways before we pronounce judgment, for in some locali- 

 ties it may be a true friend and in others an enemy. 



Methods — This work should begin in winter with an effort on the part 

 of the boys to discover the food of the crows while snow is on the ground. 

 This is a good time to study their habits and their roosts. The nests are 

 also often found in winter, although usually built in evergreens. The 

 nesting season is in early April, and the questions about the nests should 

 be given then. Let the other questions be given when convenient. The 

 flight, the notes, the sentinels, the food, the benefit and damage may all 

 be taken as separate topics. 



The following topics for essays should be given to correlate with work 

 in English: "What a pet crow of my acquaintance did;" "Evidences of 

 crow intelligence;" "A plea a crow might make in self-defence to the 

 farmer who wished to shoot him;" "The best methods of preventing crows 

 from stealing planted com." 



