40 



THE COMMON CROW. 



From Witmer Stone, Germantown, Pa. : I have heard from reliable authority of 

 Crows carrying off young chickens, but have never seen them do so myself. I fre- 

 quently have seen them sucking the contents of turkey eggs, but only when the 

 turkeys had laid in some retired place, not near the barnyard. 1886. 



From Edwin B. Clark, Waxahachie, Ellis County, Tex. : I have known it to take 

 young chickens and steal eggs in early spring, about March and April, particularly 

 when the weather was very dry. I have never known it to do this except during 

 the breeding season. The laying season here begins early in February and lasts 

 until May. 1886. 



Evidence furnished by stomach examination. — Traces of poultry or 

 their eggs were found in 46 of the 909 stomachs examined. Twenty- 

 one other stomachs contained bird remains which could not be posi- 

 tively identified as belonging to domesticated fowls, though in many 

 cases this was probable. Allowing half these doubtful remains to 

 have been those of poultry, we have a total of 57 stomachs, 6J percent 

 of all examined, or about 1 stomach in 16. Of this number, however, 

 17 were taken in the months of January, February, March, September, 

 and November, and the bird remains contained in these may be safely 

 recorded as carrion or offal. The remaining cases occurred in May, 

 June, and July, and presumably in most cases they can not be placed 

 under the head of carrion or offal. 



Table showing remains of poultry or eggs found in 616 Crow stomachs collected from 



April to July. 



Stomachs examined. 



April. 



May. 



June. 



July. 



Total. 



2STumbei> of stomachs examined 



42 



364 



11 

 15 

 3 

 4 



165 



45 

 2 



616 





1 



12 





19 





4 





7 













33 



6 



3 



42 



2 















Total 











40 



I 



I 





This table shows that during the nesting season of the Grow, the time 

 when the greatest damage to fowls and their eggs might be expected, 

 only about 1 Crow in 15 had eaten ' either. Even this statement is 

 too high, since 19 of the stomachs that contained remains of poultry 

 belonged to young Crows taken from 6 nests. 



Turning now to a consideration of the actual quantity of such food 

 taken, it appears that the eggs and young of poultry form only a very 

 small part of the Crow's food even during the nesting season. As 

 already stated, such food was found in 40 stomachs taken during the 

 breeding season and 19 of these were nestlings from 6 nests. The 

 average quantity in each stomach was a little less than 12 percent 

 (11.9). The average for all the stomachs taken during the breeding 

 season, 616 in all, is only a little more than three-fourths of 1 percent 

 (0.77), and the average for the year (909 stomachs) is a little over half 

 of 1 percent (0.52). 



