THE CROW AND ITS RELATION TO MAN. 19 
terida?, small, shiny, hard-shelled beetles that live in carrion and 
probably feed on other insects found there, were present in a number 
of stomachs, though never forming a large part of the food. 
Click beetles (Elateridse) or their larvae, wireworms, were present 
in 105 stomachs. In no month of the year, however, did these de- 
structive insects form as much as 1 per cent of the crow's food. A 
bird taken at Aweme, Manitoba, in May had destroyed 72 wireworms 
and 1 click beetle. Mr. Stuart Criddle, who collected this bird, noted 
at the time it was shot that "wireworm beetles were all over the 
fields, and that the crows could be seen turning up cow dung, sods, 
and bits of sticks hunting for them." (1912.) 
The late Prof. F. M. Webster, in writing of the natural enemies of 
wireworms, made the following statement : 1 
Among the natural enemies the crow is doubtless the most useful, and what 
testimony we have on the subject goes to show that elaters and their larvae con- 
stitute a large portion of its food. B. F. Aston, of White Creek, N. Y., on break- 
ing up a crow's nest containing the unfledged young, found the crops of each of 
these to contain 70 or 80 snapping beetles. A more recent observation is recorded 
by Prof. Theo. G. Lemmon, of Westport, Mo., in a paper read before the State 
Horticultural Society at its twenty-ninth annual meeting. The professor shot 
and examined the contents of the crops of a number of crows about Lexington, 
Mo., where the ravages of wireworms had been very severe, and found that they 
contained a sufficient number of these insects to warrant the assurance that 
the crow is the untiring enemy of the wireworm. 
From such reports it would appear that the crow is a more effec- 
tive enemy of the wireworm than stomach examination indicates. It 
doubtless does good work during outbreaks of these insects, and were 
it possible to collect material under such circumstances much positive 
evidence of this trait could be secured. 
A few long-horned and metallic wood-boring beetles (Cerambycidse 
and Buprestidse) , stag beetles (Lucanidse), leaf beetles (Chryso- 
melidse), aquatic beetles (Dytiscidaa and Hydrophilidse) , and dark- 
ling beetles (Tenebrionidse) also enter into the crow's diet, but in no 
case is their destruction of great importance. Beetles of small size 
are practically immune to the attack of crows. A single ladybird 
(Megilla maculata) , for instance, is the only one of this fairly abun- 
dant family found in the entire series of 2.118 stomachs. The smaller 
species of leaf beetles also were lacking, though abundant and avail- 
able in many of the situations in which the crow habitually feeds. 
Orthoptera (grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets). 
In many respects Orthoptera constitute the most important insect 
food of the crow. In bulk they are exceeded by beetles by only a 
fraction of 1 per cent, while the damage they inflict far exceeds that 
iOhio Agr. Exp. Sta., Bull. 46, p. 228, 1893. 
