By Ferd. J. Sudow, Poughkeepsie, N. Y. 



75 



A Little Severe Talk on Crows 



Crows are without a doubt the most bitter enemies of our native quail, partridges, 

 pheasants, etc. The story, that severe winters have killed off quail does not hold good ; for 

 the reason that our winter weather is not any more severe now than it ever was. The year 

 after the great blizzard of 1888 we had plenty of quail but I believe that crows have greatly 

 added to the extermination of our bob white quail. A wholesale slaughter should be under- 

 taken at once to kill these birds of prey. They are doing great damage to crops, and robbing 

 the farmers of their young chickens. I venture to say crows do damageto crops, poultry, 

 etc., right in Dutchess County, N. Y., amoujjting to more than two million dollars in 

 a year. From my personal observation I judge about one million crows inhabit Dutchess 

 County. A farmer told me that for the past three years his com crop was a total failure on 

 account of the crows destro3ring it, besides robbing him of one half his young poultry. I 

 trust our State Game Commissioner and County Supervisors will in the near future come to 

 the conclusion that something must be done for the destruction of crows. Every farmer 



suffers to a great extent from 

 damage done by crows. They 

 are multiplying at the rate of 

 three to five per pair every 

 year. The slaughtering of 

 these birds shotdd be under- 

 taken during nesting time, by 

 shooting out the nests, and 

 again in winter when heavy 

 snow is on the ground, at 

 which period they congregate 

 in immense large numbers to- 

 gether, and could be killed off 

 in big quantities by a few 

 gun shots. The value of a 

 crow is from 1.5c to 25c; for 

 millinery purposes. 



JAPANESE LONG TAIL PHOENIX FOWL.— All species of the pheasant family— tail 11 feet long 



