282 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 23, 1903. 
The Natural Enemies of Birds. 
BY EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH. 
From the “Special Report on the Decrease of Certain Birds, and 
its Causes, -with Suggestions for Bird Protection,” in the 
Fifty-second Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board 
of Agriculture. 
{Concluded from Page 212.) 
The Common Crow, 
The crow is now. regarded by so many people as 
a useful and much-maligned bird, that it may not be 
out of place to present here some' of the evidence 
against it. I have already given to this Board some 
of my experience with the crow, concerning its de- 
structiveness to birds,* and will only say here that I 
have repeatedly observed crows in the act of destroy- 
ing the eggs and young of other birds; they are so 
addicted to nest-robbing that it is a wonder that any 
young of the smaller birds can be reai'ed where crows 
are numerous, and my experience indicates that in some 
cases very few are actually reared in such localities. 
Since, in view of my own experience, I may be considered 
as prejudiced against the bird, I will quote mainly from 
new evidence secured in this inquiry. It will be im- 
possible to present here more than a small part of the 
evidence received, giving it in the words of the wit- 
nesses, to avoid any possible distortion. 
In a letter written by Mr. Ingalls, in 1896, he says: 
‘T have seen the nests of many birds of several species, 
from the ruffed grouse to the red-eye and chippy, 
robbed before my own eyes, and have evidence of many 
more. Every season, late in May or early in June, 
the crows make a raid on the birds nesting in the shade 
trees along our village streets and in orchards and 
private grounds, systematically searching every tree, 
destroying nests, and eating or carrying away the eggs 
and young.” Now, after eight years’ more experience, 
he rates the crow as the most destructive of all the 
natural enemies of birds. 
Here is another experience from another county : “For 
the past ten years, during the breeding season of the birds, 
from the last of May through June and July of each 
year, I have watched the crows eat the eggs and little 
birds. I have watched them start at 4 o’clock in the 
morning, or a little later, and hunt over the shade 
trees that line the streets for the eggs and young birds, 
even going into the trees that stand close to the build- 
ings, where people would not think a crow would ever 
go. This is done, of course, before people rise; and as 
soon as any one stirs out they will leave, but will begin 
the next morning just the same. Any one can plainly 
see what they are up to. After the breeding season 
they will not visit the shade trees until the breeding- 
season begins the next year, and then they are ready 
to follow them up again.” 
‘T have many times seen crows eating robins’ eggs, 
and, have also, seen them flying from nests with the 
young birds in their beaks. This was probably food 
for their own young. I often see them very early in 
the morning searching trees near houses where small 
birds have nests.” 
“I have seen crows come to the eaves of a house 
and -take young robins from the nest.” 
“Crows are remarkably plentiful here. Have not 
known a nest of young birds to mature this year. Saw a 
crow take young out of nests right by the house.” 
“I have seen crows drive birds from the nest, and take 
and eat whatever was in it, whether young birds or 
eggs. There is one tall elm tree in particular on the 
boundaries of our place where I have watched them 
repeatedly attack the birds and eat the young.” 
“The crows visit the orchard very early in the morn- 
ing, usually about sunrise, and after their visit you 
can find many nests without eggs, that had a full com- 
plement the day before.” 
“Directly back of my house is a bush pasture, in 
which are a few pines, cedars and birches. In the 
pines and cedars numerous robins build every spring; 
and every spring about the nesting time of the crows I 
see them searching through these pines and cedars for 
— something. At no other time of year do I ever see 
a crow even alight in this pasture, to say nothing about 
visiting each tree separately, with every action indi- 
cating a search for something. One morning a few 
years ago I saw a crow, drop into the top of a certain 
cedar in this pasture, and pick the eggs, one by one, 
from a robin’s nest there and eat them. A year or 
so later I saw the same thing done again, although 
this nest was in another cedar. . At another time I 
saw a crow visit a robin’s nest in an oak tree. This 
nest contained young birds perhaps a week old, and 
de.spite the protests of the parent birds, they were all 
carried away, apparently to feed the crow’s young. In 
a clump of pines southwest of the house a pair of 
crows had a nest one year, while the crows’ hunting 
ground was to the east of the house, so that the old 
crows often flew over the house while passing from 
the hunting ground to the nest. On one of these trip^ 
a crow had in its bill a young bird, unfeathered, which 
I identified at the time as a young robin. While there 
are many nests built every year in the pasture referred 
to, I estimate that not one in ten ever contains young, 
and not half the young ever leave the nest alive, I 
know that at least one crow visited this pasture every 
day.” 
“Crows destroy many nests of eggs. Think them the 
worst enemy.” 
“I have seen crows attack the nests of our common 
birds many times, and carry off the young birds to 
use for feeding ' their own ■ young during ' the nesting 
season. * * * Both crows and red squirrels are fond 
of birds’ eggs, and I have found the empty shells of 
eggs of birds near their nests many times.” 
“I have many times seen crows in the act of robbing 
birds’ nests.” 
“I, and an absolutely trustworthy friend, have on 
several occasions seen crows carrying young birds away, 
though we have been unable to identify the victims. 
Last June a robin’s nest near my house was despoiled 
by. crows, and three young birds were taken; the fourth 
fell to the ground.” 
^Report Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 1896, “The 
Qrow ill Massachusetts," p. 2?5; see also %pid,, 1902, p, 147, 
This bird does more, damage to the farmer than 
almost all, other birds. He deliberately kills our young 
song birds, out insect-eating birds. He has been seen 
to go through our grove of maple trees, each side of 
me highway, _ destroying the nests and young birds. 
Our village is well provided with shade trees, and 
nearly every tree is occupied by one or more birds’ 
nests, mostly robins, with many smaller birds; and in 
the woods outside we always have plenty of crows. In 
the nesting season,^ early in the morning, from half- 
past 3 to 5, you will find plenty of crows hunting the 
trees for nests, and it is always a still-hunt. I make it 
a point to look after them at this season, and have shot 
quite a number of them with both eggs and young birds 
in their possession. One morning I shot one from my 
door with a young robin, two-thirds grown, in his bill. 
There are two or three others here that I have inter- 
ested in protecting the birds, so that we manage to have 
som of them, and ma.ke it rather hot for the crows.” 
“Ihe crows gather in quantities about the maple trees 
lining the highway, and fight our robins, often, destroy- 
ing the old bird, and then destroying the eggs or young; 
also the chipping sparrow. Then, again, they attack 
our red-winged blackbirds’ nests. The crow is well 
aware who has the gun, and makes his visits early, 
about 3:30 A. M., as soon as signs of life appear. He 
is out when no gun is at hand. This is our greatest 
enemy to song birds, and a bounty ought tO' be placed 
on him.” 
The above statements, coming, as they do, from many 
sections of the State, go far to substantiate the claim 
made by some persons that the crow is everywhere the 
greatest natural enemy of the smaller birds. Professor 
Hodge told me that crows had repeatedly robbed 
robins’ nests in a city lot, under his windows, coming 
very early in the morning, before people generally were 
out of bed. They are just as inveterate thieves of the 
eggs and young of the larger birds. Severab observers 
speak of crows taking the eggs and young of fowls and 
turkeys. This is a habit so well known that it hardly 
need be alluded to here, except to show their taste for 
eggs and nestlings. 
Mr. Price, at the Middlesex Fells Reservation, is 
raising both wild and domesticated ducks and pheasants. 
He says that crows took five out of seven young ducks 
m one day. In June about too mallard ducks were 
turned out on a small pond. Ducks lay their eggs very 
early in the morning, and every morning crows were 
seen carrying off eggs. Mr. Price says they took about 
fifty each week, carrying off, altogether, front 800 to 
1,000 eggs during the season, taking about all the eggs 
laid by the ducks. 
It is probable that where one instance of crows rob- 
bing nests is observed, a thousand pass unnoticed. 
There is only one redeeming feature in the case of the 
crow, and that is, that not all crows habitually rob birds’ 
nests; for if they did, they would destroy most other 
birds, and in time we should have few birds but crows. 
Squif els. 
Forty-two observers regard squirrels as very injurious 
to birds, thus ranking them next to the crow in de- 
structiveness, and some regard them as more vicious 
than the crow. Others believe that squirrels do no 
harm, as they have never seen diem troubling birds 
in any way, nor seen birds manifesting any alarm at 
their presence. Mr. Brewster is very positive that the 
squirrels have never troubled the birds at his place in 
Cambridge, where he has watched carefully for years 
the habits of both birds and squirrels.' Mason A. 
W alton, the hermit of Gloucester, says that he has 
several times seen red squirrels examining the nests 
of birds, but that they never disturbed the nests or 
young birds. t 
There may be many good squirrels, but there cer- 
tainly are some bad ones, as the literature of field 
natural history teems with instances of their destruc- 
tiveness. To convince the reader, some new evidence 
is appended, collected during this inquiry. 
“Red squirrels, I think, do fully as much damage as 
crows. For a number of years I had quite a colony 
of red squirrels on my premises, and protected them, 
as the family liked to see them around. But one morn- 
mg there was a great commotion among the robins 
in the yard; I stepped to the door with gun in hand, 
expecting to find crows, but, on looking closely, found 
a red squirrel at the nest, from which he soon started, 
carrying something in his mouth. I fired at him, and 
he dropped to the ground, and with him a young robin 
with the head partly eaten; and on looking the ground 
over, I found two others in the same condition. Since 
then by observing closely I have found them despoiling 
the nests of robins and other birds of either the eggs 
or^ young, and shoot them on sight, as a nuisance.” 
“I was at work in one of my gardens when my at- 
tention was attracted by the cries of a pair of thrushes 
nearby. On approaching, I discovered a red squirrel 
sitting upon the nest, husily devouring their young. 
I drove the little rascal away with stones, but he re- 
turned again, and had bitten the remaining birds be- 
fore I reached the nest again, it being several rods 
distant. The next day I found .nothing left but the 
empty nest. The young thrushes were more than half 
grown, and were all destroyed, undoubtedly by this 
same squirrel.” 
“There is an apple orchard on the rear of my place, 
and during the summer of 1903 1 was surprised to see 
the robins, etc., continually building new nests. They 
would no sooner have a nest finished and eggs laid, 
than they would be at work on a ne-w one, usually in 
the same tree, the first one having been abandoned and 
the eggs missing. One day in passing through the 
orchard I saw some robins fluttering and scolding about 
one of the nests, and, being interested, tried to see the 
cause of the trouble. I found there was a red squirrel 
sitting. on the edge of the nest, devouring the eggs as 
calmly as possible. I had noticed previously that a 
pair of red squirrels made their home in a hole in one 
of the trees, and saw that they were undoubtedly the 
cause of the depleted nests. I killed the squirrels, and 
there was no more trouble.” 
t“A Hermifls Wild Friends,” Mason A. Walton, p. 68, 
“Some five years ago I noticed that some species of 
birds were decreasing in a certain small piece of wood- 
land that I look over pretty carefully, and the many 
rifled nests convinced me the red squirrels were doing 
the mischief. I started a campaign after them, and front 
that time until the present have shot them on sight. 
During this tittle have caught them in the act of rifling 
robins’ and catbirds’ nests, and with fledglings in their 
mouths; also found egg shells around squirrels’ rteSts 
on the ground. On one occasion saw a pair of robins 
catch a red squirrel at their nest, and with the help 
of others drive hint from it and chase him to cover. 
An egg had been taken from this nest, which I found 
on the ground uninjured, where he evidently dropped 
it in flight. For some time I had another robin’s 
egg, dropped by a red squirrel, that had been neatly 
punctured ready to suck.” 
“In the spring of 1896 nly attention was first drawn 
to the red squirrels robbing birds’ nests. In the early 
morning I have repeatedly seen the red squirrels going 
from tree to tree, hunting for birds’ nests. If these 
nests contained young birds, they were taken out and 
eaten by the squirrels. The birds around our place de- 
creased rapidly, and the squirrels increased. Catbirds, 
which had begun to nest around here in numbers, as 
tlm locality apparently .suited them, were entirely driven 
off, and no longer build nests here. I think it was 
about four years ago that we killed off numbers of red 
squirrels, and the birds began then to increase.” 
“I have many times seen red squirrels in the act of 
robbing birds’ nests, and this year saw a young gray 
apparently at the same trick.” 
TThe foregoing instances sfeem to establish the fact 
that certain squirrels at least which have acquired the 
habit of molesting birds are among their most danger^ 
oils enemies. Squirrels are very active, keen of sight, 
cqn climb anywhere in a tree, and it is difficult for a 
Joird smaller than a hawk or crow to defend its nest 
against them. I have seen a squirrel continually at- 
tempt to reach the nest of a robin, although, being as- 
sailed from all sides bv both robins and jays, it was 
struck and repeatedly driven back toward the ground. 
In courage and activity the red squirrel is superior to 
the gray, and is usually regarded as the greater enemy 
to birds. At Wareham the birds seem to regard both 
species with equal aversion. 
Some squirrels have a habit of cracking the skulls 
of young birds, as they would a nut. Mr. F. H, 
Mosher tells me he has observed this habit St Hyde 
Park, Dutchess county, N, Y,, and also at Dartmouth, 
Mass, At_ Hyde Park both red and gray squirrels Were 
observed in the act. He saw the squirrels aDack the 
young oil the nestS On six different Occasions. The 
birds molested were the chipping sparrow, robin and 
red-eyed vireo. The squirrel cut off the head of each 
young bird, dropping the body to the ground, and ate- 
out the brains from the skull. One day in the Spring 
of 1903 he heard the cries of robins at his Own place 
in Dartmouth. He saw a gray squirrel climbing to a 
robin’s nest, and before he could reach the spot the 
squirrel had the head of a young robin ill its mouth. 
The bird was dead when he reached it. Gray squirrels 
have been the culprits in each case but one that he has 
observed. 
Mr. Brewster told me that he saw a wounded thrush 
pursued and overtaken by a chipmunk, that killed the 
bird and was eating its brains when he reached the spot. 
He took the bird from the squirrel, but the little animal 
was so eager and fearless that it would not leave, but 
stood up trying to retch the bird, like a dog begging 
for a boile. 
Mr. H. H. Dewey writes from New Lenox, Berkshire 
county, as follows; “Last summer I had occasion to 
observe a nest of small yellowblrds in a willow bush 
near where I milked my cows. One morning, as J 
was milking, I heard several of the old birds making 
a great noise of distress, and on going near the nest 
I discovered a chipmunk just swallowing one of the 
young ones which had been hatched about three days. 
The chipmunk escaped, and on going to the nest I 
found only one of four left. I heard the cries of the 
old ones early the next morning, and on hurrying to 
the nest I saw the last young bird being swallowed 
whole by the chipmunk, which again made its escape. 
I have for a number of years been suspicious of the 
little animals doing great damage to either the young 
birds or the eggs, but have never been able to catch one 
in the act before,” 
It seems improbable that the chipmunk actually swal- 
lo-wed a young bird whole, but it may have stowed it away 
in its large cheek-pouches, for convenience in carrying 
it off. It is probable that only certain individuals 
among squirrels molest birds. Such individuals must 
be killed by those who would protect the birds. 
The English Sparfow. 
Many people consider this the most destructive of all 
the natural enemies of birds, and it may be so, in and 
near the cities, with the possible exception of the cat. 
The story of how this bird was introduced here, invad- 
ing the cities and villages, destroying the native birds 
or driving them out into the country, was told long- 
agq.J Much might be added to it from my -Own ex^ 
perience and that of correspondents, but lack of space 
forbids. There are some localities in the country to 
which the sparrow has not penetrated, and it has seemed 
to me that it was hardly holding its own- for the past 
few years, especially in eastern Massachusetts, where in 
some sections sparrows are not so numerous as in the, 
past, and the native birds are beginning to reoccupy 
their old haunts. The information gained in this 
inquiry, however, does not confirm with this belief, for 
every county, except Suffolk, Dukes, Barnstable ' and 
Nantucket, sends reports of an increase of these birds. 
The only reports of an increase in the cities come 
from Fitchburg, Lowell and Waltham; all the rest come 
from towns, and many from the smaller and more re- 
mote villages. _ All this seems to indicate that, outside 
the larger cities, the sparrows are still increasing in 
numbers and extending, their baleful influence. 
t“The English Sparrow in North America,’’ Walter B. Barrows, 
Bulletin I., Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy!' 
United States Department of Agriculture, ■ 
