18 BULLETIN 621, IT. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
1.56 per cent of the yearly food. This is somewhat atoned for by 
the presence in the diet of certain apparently herbivorous carabids. 
Khynchophora (weevils, billbugs). — In the control of weevil 
pests as a whole, the crow can not be considered an important factor. 
These insects form only 0.59 per cent of its food and on only two 
species does the bird feed to an extent sufficient for it to be con- 
sidered even a moderate check on the increase of the insects. These 
are the clover-leaf weevil (Hyper a punctata) and the imbricated 
snout-beetle (Epiccerus imbricatus). The former, introduced from 
Europe many years ago, has gradually extended its range until it is 
now reported doing serious damage as far west as Idaho. 1 Of the 
stomachs examined, 107 contained remains of the clover-leaf weevil, 
an average of about 1 for every 12^ stomachs. Eleven was the 
largest number recorded in any one stomach, that being of a crow 
collected in New Jersey in March. The imbricated snout-beetle 
which is known to injure a variety of crops, was found in fewer 
stomachs (68), but in several instances in considerable numbers. 
A series of four stomachs secured at Sandy Spring, Mel., in Ma} T 
contained 27, 25, 14, and 11, respectively. Clover-root cufculios 
(Sitona), rhubarb curculios (Lixus concavus), and other species of 
Lixus occurred in a limited number of stomachs. Members of the 
genus Thecesternus were taken frequently by crows collected in the 
central and southern parts of the Mississippi Valley. Billbugs, in- 
cluding pests which feed to an injurious extent upon corn, small 
grains, and grasses, also entered into the. crow's diet. 
Other Coleoptera. — Other miscellaneous beetles comprised nearly 
1 per cent of the crow's annual food. Common among these were the 
necrophagous and coprophagous forms, Silphidse, Staphylinida?, and 
Histeridse. These beetles were taken about as frequently as scara- 
bseicls of similar habits and often appeared in the same stomachs. 
Their presence in the crow's diet is indicative of the bird's scavenger 
habits, and it would appear that on occasions the crow will search 
through carrion merely for these insects, leaving the offal as con- 
venient bait for more. The larvae of these beetles are taken as well. 
A crow secured in Alabama in May had fed on at least 29 larva? of 
a Silpha. Another from New York had eaten 13. One shot in 
Dallas County, Mo., in June had devoured no less than 21 adults of 
the large staphylinicl Creophilus villosus, as well as 3 of a species of 
Necrophorus and 9 of Silpha surinamensis, which together, forming 
55 per cent of the food, lent strong circumstantial evidence as to the 
nature of the remains of a chicken and turtle found in the same 
stomach. Of larder beetles (Dermestid?e) the crow eats few. His- 
1 Parks, T. H., Journ. Eccm. Entom., VII, No. 3, p. 297, 1014. 
