LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL 



United States Department of Agriculture, 



Division of Ornithology and Mammalogy, 



Washington, D. C, July 27, 1895. 



Sir : I have the honor to transmit herewith, as Bulletin No. 6 of this 

 division, a report on the economic status of the Crow, by Walter B. 

 Barrows, a former assistant in the division of ornithology, and E. A. 

 Schwarz, an assistant in the division of entomology. Mr. Schwarz has 

 prepared the part on the insect food ; Professor Barrows all the rest. 



The original manuscript was very much more voluminous than the 

 present report. Hundreds of notes from observers and S6 pages of 

 tabular matter, showing the principal contents of each of the stomachs 

 examined, have been omitted. The detailed lists of insects found in 

 the stomachs by Mr. Schwarz have also been left out. 



The present report is based on the examination of the contents of 

 nearly a thousand stomachs. The quantity and quality of the evidence 

 seem sufficient to justify a final conclusion respecting the economic 

 status of the Grow, although a larger number of stomachs from some 

 parts of the country would have been acceptable. 



The most important charges brought against the Crow are: (1) That 

 it pulls sprouting corn; (2) that it injures corn in the milk; (3) that it 

 destroys cultivated fruit 5 and (4) that it feeds on the eggs and young 

 of poultry and wild birds. 



All of these charges are sustained by the stomach examinations, so 

 far as the simple fact that Crows feed upon the substances named. 

 But the extent of the injury is a very different matter. 



In order to ascertain whether the sum of the harm done outweighs 

 the sum of the good, or the contrary, the different kinds of food found 

 in the stomachs have been reduced to quantitative percentages and 

 contrasted. The total quantity of corn eaten during the entire year 

 amounts to 25 percent of the food of adult Crows, and only 9.3 per 

 cent of the food of youog Crows. Leaving the young out of consider- 

 ation, it may be said that in agricultural districts about one-fourth of 

 the food of Crows consists of corn. But less than 14 percent of this 

 corn, and only 3 percent of the total food of the Crow, consists of 

 sprouting corn and corn in the milk; the remaining 86 percent of the 

 corn, or 97 percent of the total food, is chiefly waste grain picked up 

 here and there, mainly in winter, and of no economic value. 



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