THE CROW AND ITS RELATION TO MAN. 81 
the Oakland Club, in South Carolina, has written : " I pay 10 cents 
for the bill of every crow, but can honestly say I see no great benefit 
nor any decrease in numbers." (1912.) 
A. W. Perrior, of Syracuse, N. Y., states that " the Anglers' Asso- 
ciation of Onondaga County offered a bounty of 5 cents a head three 
years ago but there were very few heads brought in, due to the fact 
that the price offered was too small." (1912.) 
Notwithstanding the popularity of the bounty system, it has several 
objectionable features which make it not only unsatisfactory, but also 
dangerous. Its efficiency in reducing the number of crows over large 
areas is to be seriously questioned, inasmuch as the comparatively 
small sum which can be offered does not often furnish a sufficient in- 
centive for a persistent warfare of extermination. At the same time 
the opportunities and incentives for fradudulent practices are 
numerous. 
In many localities in which bounties have been paid more or less 
continuously for many years, crows are still found in considerable 
numbers, and, judging from the amounts being paid from year to 
year for bounties, the birds do not appear to be in immediate 
danger of extermination. The numbers of crows have been reduced 
to some extent in comparatively restricted areas when bounties were 
reasonably attractive. On the other hand, cases have come to atten- 
tion where the numbers have actually increased in areas where 
bounty laws were in force. 
To enter into a discussion of the various ways in which bounty 
laws have led to fraudulent practices would extend this bulletin 
beyond its legitimate scope. It will suffice to say that bounty systems 
against crows will continue to result in meager returns for the money 
invested as in the past, and at the same time will be liable to produce 
conditions savoring of the iniquity with which so many of these 
systems have been associated. 
SUMMARY. 
A brief summary of decisions reached respecting each of the more 
important economic problems that have arisen in this investigation 
will make it possible to review with some degree of thoroughness the 
many-sided question of the value of the crow. 
FOOD HABITS. 
Insects. 
The crow's destruction of insects presents the strongest argument 
in the bird's favor. Nearly a fifth of the adult crow's yearly suste- 
nance comes from such sources, and a great part of the insect mate- 
rial is eaten early in spring, a time when the life cycles of many of 
14653°— 18— Bull. 621 6 
