Field Marks. A large bird entirely black. 
Note. "Caw, caw, caw." 
When a boy is asked to name the birds he knows, very often the 
-crow is the first one mentioned. The crow is certainly familiar to every 
Vermont boy and girl. What farmer's boy has not trapped and hunted 
him for pulling his father's corn. He has learned how cunning and wise 
the crow is. Perhaps he has kept a young crow about the farm house 
for a few weeks, realizing then to the sorrow of the whole family, how 
much noise a crow is capable of making. I know by experience that 
a young crow makes a splendid alarm clock, self winding and continually 
sounding— until food is stuffed down his throat. One of my neighbors 
once had a tame old crow that could speak a few words quite distinctly. 
No one disputes the fact that the crow at certain times of the year 
does some injury to the farmers, but whether the injury exceeds the 
good that he does is a matter of doubt. The Department of Agriculture 
has investigated the food habits of the crow with this result : The adult 
American crow is vegetarian to the extent of two-thirds of his diet and 
half of his vegetable food consists of grain, principally corn. But the 
nestling crows consume large quantities of cutworms, grasshoppers, May 
beetles, both l^arvae and adult, thus rendering considerable more service 
to agriculture than the adult birds. In fact the quantity of insect pests 
they consume exceeds in volume more than two to one of the corn they 
take. 
In the warmer portions of the state where the crow can obtain plenty 
of food, he remains throughout the winter. 
B O B O L I N K — {Dolichonyx o ryziv o rus. ) 
Male, top and sides of the head and under parts black; back of the 
neck with a large yellowish cream-buft' patch; back largely grayish white; 
tail feathers with pointed tips. 
Female, young, and adult male in the fall, upper parts brownish 
streaked with black; under parts buffy; "like a big sparrow." 
Length about seven inches. 
Arrival. May 7 to 20. 
Favorite Haunts. In meadows and fields. 
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