BIRDS CONSPICUOUSLY BLACK 
The Common Crow 
(Corvus Americanus) Crow family 
Called also: CORN THIEF 
Length—16 to 17.50 inches. 
Male—Glossy black with violet reflections. Wings appear saw- 
toothed when spread, and almost equal the tail in length. 
Female—Like male, except that the black is less brilliant. 
Range—Throughout North America, from Hudson Bay to the 
Gulf of Mexico. 
Migrations—March. October. Summer and winter resident. 
If we have an eye for the picturesque, we place a certain 
value upon the broad, strong dash of color in the landscape, given 
by a flock of crows flapping their course above a corn-field, against 
an October sky ; but the practical eye of the farmer ‘ooks only 
for his gun in such a case. To him the crow is an unmitigated 
nuisance, all the more maddening because it is clever enough to 
circumvent every means devised for its ruin. Nothing escapes 
its rapacity ; fear is unknown to it. It migrates in broad day- 
light, chooses the most conspicuous perches, and yet its assur- 
ance is amply justified in its steadily increasing numbers. 
In the very early spring, note well the friendly way in which 
the crow follows the plow, ingratiating itself by eating the larve, 
field mice, and worms upturned in the furrows, for this is its one 
serviceable act throughout the year. When the first brood of 
chickens is hatched, its serious depredations begin. Not only 
the farmer’s young fledglings, ducks, turkeys, and chicks, are 
snatched up and devoured, but the nests of song birds are made 
desolate, eggs being crushed and eaten on the spot, when there 
are no birds to carry off to the rickety, coarse nest in the high 
tree top in the woods. The fish crow, however, is the much 
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