THE CROW AND ITS RELATION TO MAN. 29 
economy of man, while salamanders, the least valuable of the three, 
are found in damp places, where occasionally a foraging crow, turn- 
ing over sticks and stones, may find them. In the examination of 
stomachs it was found difficult in many cases, where only a small 
portion of the skeleton remained, to distinguish between frogs and 
toads, but enough identifications were made to establish the fact 
that frogs greatly outnumbered toads in the food of the crow. The 
crow's favorite habit of hunting in marshy areas probably accounts 
for much of this, and then, too, toads are largely nocturnal in their 
habits, remaining in concealment during most of the day. The fact 
that the latter, owing to their clumsiness, frequently meet with fatal 
accidents warrants the assumption that a portion of the toads eaten 
must be classified as carrion. Amphibians of various kinds were 
present in 153 of the 1,340 stomachs of adult crows, in 86 of which 
they were identified as frogs. In only 3 were toads recognized, 
though doubtless some of the remains not generally determined were 
of these creatures. Salamanders were detected in 29 stomachs. 
WILD BIKDS AND THEIK EGGS. 
The crow's antagonism to other native birds has been the basis of 
complaints against it from the earliest days of American ornithology, 
and the various changes that agriculture and the general advance of 
civilization have made upon the environments of many birds have 
had a tendency even to aggravate this evil. The establishing of game 
farms and preserves, where large numbers of game birds with their 
eggs and young are confined to comparatively small areas, has 
brought this obnoxious habit of the crow to the immediate notice 
of game wardens and game raisers. In public parks and rural dis- 
tricts where the crow has had protection along with other species, it 
has at times assumed the role of a most persistent nest robber, making 
daily visits in early morning hours among the trees and shrubs in 
search of nests of smaller species; and throughout our agricultural 
districts in general, where formerly much of the timber and brush 
was an effective cover for birds, the crow now has a better chance to 
ply this nefarious work. Complaints are made also of the crow's 
predatory habits in environments unaltered by the hand of man, as 
in nesting colonies of herons, rails, ducks, and other waterfowl. 
From this' it would seem that the crow's bird-killing and nest-despoil- 
ing habit is not a recently acquired one, although modern conditions 
doubtless have aided the bird considerably. 
In the search for evidence bearing on this trait of the crow stom- 
ach analysis alone does not always tell the whole story ; it is impor- 
tant, however, especially in refuting wild and groundless accusations 
sometimes made against the crow by persons who have let a few 
personal observations, limited usually to restricted areas and peculiar 
