54 THE COMMON CROW. 



" Some years ago, while wandering along the shores of Puget Sound, 

 in what was then Washington Territory, I noticed a flock of Fish 

 Crows flying out to a small island which the ebbing tide was just 

 revealing. Each one in tarn seized some object in his bill, and flying 

 to the rocky shore dropped it on the rocks, and then descended to feast 

 upon it. 



"Investigation showed that the objects were mussels. Instead of 

 hammering the shells open, which would have cost time and labor, the 

 Crows, in order to get at the contents, resorted to the easy and expedi- 

 tious mode of letting the mussels fall on the rocks. 



"No doubt the trick was learned by accident, as many an important 

 invention of man has been. A flying Crow accidentally dropped a 

 mussel on the rocks, and noting the result repeated the experiment to 

 his own and his observing relatives' profit; and so in time, through 

 inheritance, the habit became fixed among Crows. 



"At the same place I observed a herd of hogs rooting in the beach at 

 the water's edge, and as I paused to note what they were about, pres- 

 ently along came several Crows. To my amazement they flew, one to 

 each pig, and perched on the head between the ears. 



"From this lookout each Crow kept a bright watch on the hog's 

 snout, evidently on the qui vive for whatever should turn up, and not 

 for a moment was his attention diverted. 



" Presently one of the hogs rooted up a razor clam, when immediately 

 down pounced the alert, but unprincipled Crow, seized the prize, and 

 made off to devour his ill- gotten booty at leisure. The stupid, but 

 honest and hard-working porker renewed his labors, apparently with 

 no sense of his loss, and at all events with no visible signs of resent- 

 ment against the robber; but as long as I played the part of spectator 

 no razor clam fell to the lot of the pigs." 



The amount of sea food in the stomachs examined was comparatively 

 small, and the annual average of the single item, mollusks, was little 

 more than one-fourth of 1 percent. Even the relatively large amount 

 in December (about 1J percent) is due to the presence of an unusual 

 quantity (55 percent) in a single stomach, the average in 8 other 

 stomachs amounting to only 3 percent. 



Beside the crustaceans and mollusks, remains of a few other inverte- 

 brates were found, but only two or three need be mentioned. Myria- 

 pods — all millipeds — occurred in perhaps a dozen stomachs, but always 

 in very small numbers, the amount exceeding 1 percent in only a single 

 instance. A small leech was found in 1 stomach, and earthworms in 9. 

 One of these stomachs contained 63 percent of earthworms, and another 

 33 percent, which, with the additional fact that no vertebrate remains 

 appeared in either case, makes it reasonably certain that the worms 

 were eaten intentionally. Three other stomachs, from young Ciows of 

 one family, contained, respectively, 2, 7, and 25 percent of earthworms. 

 The remaining 4 stomachs, all from one nest, contained about 1 per 



