46 



THE COMMON CROW. 



arrived than they fell on the crows and persecuted them relentlessly, 

 until we put an end to their misery. Leave the island they could not, 

 for did one attempt to rise a horde of terns was at him almost before 

 he had risen above the grass, and screaming, diving, and dashing at the 

 unfortunate bird would soon drive him back to the earth again, and 

 then, as if not content with that, would continue to worry him long 

 after he had settled down. The Crows were in a sorry plight, indeed, 

 for the terns, not satisfied with worrying their victims at a distance, 

 even went so far as to peck out the poor birds' feathers; and between 

 the exuvise that the terns had dropped on them, and the light patches 

 where the feathers had been picked out, the Crows presented a rather 

 mottled appearance. From the upper mandible of one Crow a piece of 

 the sheath and bone, half an inch long and an eighth deerj, had been 

 gouged out, undoubtedly by the lower mandible of a tern. This inces- 

 sant persecution had rendered the Crows so tame that we could always 

 approach to within 25 feet of them before they would fly, and Charles 

 B. Field told me that on one occasion he caught one in his hand, the 

 bird preferring rather to be caught by the man than to be chased by 

 the terns." 



Summary of evidence furnished by stomach examination. — Of the 909 

 Crow stomachs examined only 41 contained eggs, feathers, bones, or 

 other remains which could be identified certainly as those of wild 

 birds. Twenty other stomachs contained remains which may or may 

 not have belonged to wild birds. Half of these have been added to 

 the wild birds, while the remainder have been referred to poultry. A 

 single stomach taken in January contained two vertebras of a small 

 bird, doubtless found dead by the Crow; but with this exception all 

 the remains of wild birds were in stomachs taken in April, May, June, 

 and July. During these months 616 stomachs were collected. The 

 following table shows the number which contained remains of wild 

 birds or their eggs in each month : 



Table showing number of Crow stomachs containing remains of wild birds or their eggs. 





Number of 

 stomachs 

 examined. 



Number of stomachs containing— 





Mouth. 



Wild birds. 



Eggs of 

 wild birds. 



Uniden- 

 tified bird 

 remains. 



Uniden- 

 tified eggs. 



Total. 





42 

 364 

 165 



2 



16 

 9 









2 



May 



5 



7 



3 



4 

 3 



28 



T J 



19 





45 2 





2 













Total 



616 29 



12 



3 



51 









1 













50 



The above table indicates much less injury to wild birds and their 

 eggs than has been supposed. It appears that the injury is confined to 

 young birds and eggs, and consequently occurs only during the breed- 



