THE CROW AND ITS RELATION TO MAN. 49 
H. A. Surface, former State Economic Zoologist of Pennsylvania, 
reported the following: 
I note for example that crows have done a great deal of damage on ad- 
joining wheat fields during the winter time by eating almost every leaf of the 
wheat that was above the ground or snow. One wheat field on our place, 
which should be quite green, is now about bare. ( 1912. ) 
Henry W. Marsden, of San Diego, Cal., complains of the destruc- 
tion of wheat when in the shock (1912). Edwin Loreman, of Morri- 
son, 111., reports damage to both wheat and oats, which are scratched 
out at sprouting time (1912) ; and H. Martyn Micklem, of Shipman, 
Va., writes that " crows eat quantities of seed wheat and seed oats 
when the grain is imperfectly covered. Most writers appear to over- 
look this." 
Oats. 
Oats occurred in 114 of the 1,310 stomachs of adult crows, an 
average of about 1 in every 12, or half the number in which wheat 
was found. When it is considered that oats are readily available at 
all times of year in horse droppings, from which also the birds may 
secure coprophagous insects, the quantity of this grain in their diet 
need not greatly concern the farmer. Only occasional reports of 
crows attacking the sprouting crop have come to hand. The habit 
must be considered one of the minor offenses of the crow, from 
which individual farmers here and there suffer. 
Other small grains. 
Buckwheat was found in 107 stomachs, but if a larger proportion 
of the birds had been collected in areas where this grain is exten- 
sively grown, it probably would have been found in a far greater 
number of stomachs. The seeds of Polygonacese are a favorite food 
of birds generally, so it would not be surprising to find that the large 
meaty kernels of buckwheat are an even greater attraction to crows 
than stomach analysis seems to indicate. That buckwheat is eagerly 
eaten was noted especially in a series of 45 crows collected in New 
Jersey in March; this was prior to the sowing time, so that the 
buckwheat eaten must have been either waste from the preceding 
3^ear's crop or from volunteer plants along roadsides. Thirty-eight 
of these birds had eaten buckwheat, which formed 66 per cent of their 
food, and 11 of them had subsisted exclusively upon it. Another 
series of 100 birds collected at the same place during October revealed 
but little consumption of buckwheat. This grain, eaten by only 23 
of these birds, constituted 6.15 per cent of their diet. The only report 
of damage to this crop is from D. W. Southard, who complains that 
14653°— 18— Bull. 621 4 
