80 THE COMMON CROW. 



It is remarkable that in spite of the abundance of fruit aud other 

 soft vegetable food Crows continue to find and eat acorns all through 

 the spring and early summer. The quantity eaten is small during 

 most of this time, but some at least are found in every month except 

 August, while in July the average exceeds 3 percent. This surely 

 indicates considerable skill and diligence in hunting out the old acorns 

 which have lain hidden so long. It is by no means impossible that 

 Crows, in times of scarcity, draw upon hoards of food hidden by them- 

 selves or by other animals during seasons of plenty. Crows in confine- 

 ment or in a state of semidomestication are notorious thieves, hiding 

 everything for which they have no immediate use. In a wild state, 

 too, they have been seen to carry off acorns in their bills, and at least 

 some of these are presumably hidden or buried in the ground. This 

 habit or instinct is common in some degree to most, if not all, members 

 of the Crow family (Gorvidw), and in some of our American jays it is 

 strongly developed. 



Young Crows in captivity not only pull up corn on first sight, but 

 some of them appear to have a veritable mania for pr.Zling up any young 

 growing sprout. Daring the summer of 1893 I saw a pet Crow spend 

 nearly half an hour in attempting to root up a sturdy young oak of 

 two years' growth, and failing in this he made similar ineffectual efforts 

 to pull up the cane to which the little oak was tied to keep it straight.. 

 Finally, in apparent anger at its repeated failures, it began to pull off 

 the leaves of the little tree, tearing them viciously and throwing the 

 pieces aside. The same Crow made frequent visits to a piazza where 

 were some potted plants, one of which he always pulled up, no matter 

 how often it was replanted. After this had been repeated ten or 

 twelve times the Crow carried away the plant, and it was never seen 

 again. 



GRASS AND WEED SEEDS. 



Almost every Crow stomach taken in winter contained remains of 

 grass or weed seeds. The quantity, however, was usually so small as 

 to be entirely insignificant. It is only natural that a bird which gets 

 almost all its food from the ground should pick up a few small seeds 

 every day. In some cases considerable numbers of seeds were found 

 in the stomachs, but in no case were they of great importance. The 

 presence of seeds of various knotweeds (Polygonum) has been noticed 

 already ; next in abundance should be mentioned the bitter weed or 

 ragweed (Ambrosia artemisicefolia). The seeds of several other kinds 

 of ragweeds also occur, notably the giant ragweed (A. tridentata). In 

 addition to these a few stomachs contain seeds of amaranth (Amarantus), 

 clover (Trifolium), mallow (Malva), foxtail grass (Setaria), and other 

 grasses. Amaranth seeds are so universal aud abundantly distributed 

 in waste places that the few consumed by Crows can not have any effect 

 in lessening the abundance of the weeds. The same probably is true 

 of ragweed (Ambrosia), knotweed (Polygonum), and dock (Bumex\. An 



