DESTRUCTION OF EGGS AND YOUNG POULTRY. 37 



The evidence at hand sustains both. The testimony of observers is 

 abundant and unimpeachable, yet it must be confessed that it gives an 

 exaggerated idea of the extent of the evil. On the other hand, the 

 examination of large numbers of stomachs, revealing comparatively 

 few instances of these bad habits, tends perhaps to an underestimate 

 of the evil. A comparison of the two sets of information and study of 

 the combined data should give fairly trustworthy conclusions. The 

 subject will be considered under two heads : (1) The destruction of eggs 

 and young of poultry; (2) the destruction of eggs and young of wild 

 birds. 



DESTRUCTION OF EGGS AND YOUNG OF POULTRY. 



This habit of the Crow has been well known for a century at least. 

 The early settlers of eastern North America were much troubled by 

 Crows, and took measures to lessen their numbers. Wilson, writing 

 in the first decade of the present century, speaks of the Crow as 

 "detected in robbing the hens' nests, pulling up the corn, and killing 

 the young chickens," for which "he is considered as an outlaw and 

 sentenced to destruction." Audubon, who was very favorably dis- 

 posed toward the Crow and believed him to be a valuable friend ot the 

 agriculturist, omits all mention of his attacks on chickens or young 

 poultry, but speaks with evident admiration of his skill in carrying off 

 eggs. 



Many good observers have described the Crow's methods in catching 

 young poultry, but perhaps no better account has been written than 

 that published more than sixty years ago by Dr. John D. Godman. 1 

 After years of careful observation, mainly in Anne Arundel County, 

 Md., Dr. Godman says : 



"Where food is at any time scarce, or the opportunity for such, 

 marauding inviting, there is scarcely a young animal about the farm- 

 yards safe from the attacks of the Crow. Young chickens, ducks, 

 goslings, and even little pigs, when quite young and feeble, are carried 

 off by them. They are not less eager to discover the nests of domestic 

 fowls, and will sit very quietly in sight, at a convenient distance, until 

 the hen leaves the nest, and then fly down and suck her eggs at leisure. 

 But none of their tricks excited in me a greater interest than the obser- 

 vation of their attempts to rob a hen of her chicks. The Crow, alight- 

 ing a little distance from the hen, would advance in an apparently 

 careless way toward the brood, when the vigilant parent would bristle 

 up her feathers and rush at the black rogue to drive him off. After 

 several such approaches, the hen would become very angry and would 

 chase the Crow to a greater distance from the brood. This is the very 

 object the robber has in view, for as long as the parent keeps near her 

 young the Crow has very slight chance of success ; but as soon as he can 

 induce her to follow him to a little distance from the brood, he takes 



1 Rambles of a Naturalist, 1833, pp. 65-66, 



