THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND 



portion. Nestling crows also are fed 

 large quantities of each of these insects. 



A better idea of the avidity with which 

 crows seek and devour such insect prey- 

 can be gained from the following presen- 

 tation : 



Of 197 adult crows collected in the 

 month of May in many different States, 

 156 had fed to some extent on May bee- 

 tles, and in several of the stomachs these 

 pests formed more than 90 per cent of 

 the contents. 



A brood of three partly grown nestlings 

 secured in Wisconsin had been fed on 

 nothing else. Another brood of five from 

 the District of Columbia had subsisted to 

 the extent of nearly three-fourths of their 

 food on these insects, an aggregate of 

 about 70 individuals being consumed. 



It remained, however, for 12 nestlings 

 (three broods) raised in Kansas to carry 

 off the honors as destroyers of May bee- 

 tles. These 12 birds had at their last 

 meal cared for 301 individuals, one tak- 

 ing as high as 53. 



As grasshopper destroyers crows do 

 even better. One wise old bird from 

 southern Indiana had reduced the grass- 

 hopper population by 123, but among the 

 young crows the laurel must again be be- 

 stowed upon the Kansas delegation. The 

 most noteworthy work of grasshopper 

 destruction by crows of which I have 

 knowledge was performed by a half- 

 grown brood of four secured at Onaga. 

 These birds had consumed 133, 106, 105, 

 and 74 respectively — a total of 418, or an 

 average of about 104 apiece. Another 

 nestling had eaten the surprisingly large 

 number of 143 ! 



It is noteworthy that these birds were 

 all collected in years of normal grasshop- 

 per abundance, and what the crows would 

 do during periods of grasshopper out- 

 break is an interesting subject for con- 

 jecture. 



Aside from their war on May beetles 

 and grasshoppers, the latter of which 

 alone is charged with inflicting damage to 

 the crops of American farmers totaling 

 $50,000,000 annually, the crow renders 

 invaluable service in other directions. 

 The cotton-worm, the army-worm, the 

 fall army-worm, the tussock moth, the 

 spring canker-worm, the tent caterpillar, 

 the gypsy and brown-tail moths, and the 



chinch-bug — what a rogues' gallery of 

 the insect world ! — all must attribute a 

 part of their struggle for existence to the 

 vigilance of the crow. 



HOW MUCH DO CROWS EAT? 



Some experiments have been made to 

 determine the quantity of insect and other 

 food required to sustain a crow. Mr. 

 E. A. Samuels has stated that captive 

 birds in his possession ate as much as 

 eight ounces of animal food daily, while 

 Forbush in working on young crows 

 found "that when they were fed less than 

 eight ounces per day they either did not 

 increase in weight or fell off, and it was 

 not until each crow was fed ten or more 

 ounces that their weight increased." Dr. 

 Ned Dearborn informs me that an adult 

 crow in his possession ate an average of 

 4.83 ounces of animal food in a day. 



Consider for a moment, then, the daily 

 grasshopper consumption of a family of 

 six crows, two old and four young, lo- 

 cated, we will say, at Onaga, Kans., 

 where in 1913 crows were found subsist- 

 ing on grasshoppers to the extent of 

 about 42 per cent of their food. 



Allowing each of the young ten ounces 

 of food a day and each of the adults five, 

 it would take a daily ration of 50 ounces 

 to supply their wants. Interpreting 42 

 per cent of this into terms of medium- 

 sized grasshoppers, at the rate of about 

 87 per ounce, we find that such a corvine 

 household under normal conditions would 

 destroy over 1,827 °f these pests every 

 day the young were in the nest, and for 

 the entire nestling period of about three 

 weeks the surprising total of 38,367 hop- 

 pers would have been cared for ! 



AS A PREDACIOUS BIRD 



Bird-lovers generally and sportsmen, 

 game-keepers, and poult rymen in par- 

 ticular are vitally concerned with the 

 crow's relation to other wild or domestic 

 birds. There is no question that in part, 

 at least, their apprehension, frequently 

 expressed, is warranted. While the crea- 

 tion of game farms and preserves has 

 served to bring this subject to the fore in 

 recent years, the predatory habits of the 

 crow are by no means recently acquired. 

 The egg-stealing and bird-killing crow 

 was present under primeval conditions, 



