CROWS, MAGPIES, AND JAYS 



53 



From E. R. Kalmbach 



WHAT IT TAKES TO RAISE A CROW 



The nestling crow requires about lO ounces of food per day, or about 13^^ pounds for its 

 nestling life of three weeks. At the end of that time it will weigh about a pound. During 

 this period it will have eaten two and a quarter times its own weight of May beetles. The 

 grasshoppers it has eaten would, if combined, form a mammoth insect about twice the size of 

 the bird. Wild birds and poultry would each form a mass about a fifth of the crow's weight 

 and corn about one and one-half times its mass. Here are pictured a fully fledged young crow 

 and its principal food items. These include small mammals, spiders, caterpillars. May beetles, 

 poultry, wild birds, miscellaneous beetles, carrion, corn, amphibians, crustaceans, and grasshoppers. 

 These are all drawn to a scale that approximately represents the aggregate mass of the different 

 items consumed during the nestling life, compared with the bird that ate them. 



noticed that ravens were frequently pres- 

 ent. In August, 1924, 1 counted more than 

 60 at one time. They would sail out from 

 over the forest and gradually descend to 

 the short grass, there to walk sedately 

 about and feed upon the numerous grass- 

 hoppers of the valley. 



Very rarely one sees so many ravens 

 together. Usually they are found only in 

 family groups, composed of the parents 

 and their offspring. When the young have 



attained the necessary age and experience 

 to shift for themselves, they wander off, 

 but their elders remain together even until 

 the snow begins to melt and the call comes 

 to repair again the old nest. 



RAVENS SEEK LOETY NESTING SITES 



Although sometimes ravens use trees as 

 nesting sites, their usual selection is a high, 

 beetling cliff. Here, often hundreds of 

 feet above the sea, or above the floor of 



