212 
FOREST AND STREAM 
May, 1919 
CROW WAR DECLARED 
HAVING EXHAUSTED ALL MEANS FOR AN HONORABLE PEACE THE 
HUNISH CROW HAS AT LAST BEEN DETERMINED AN OUTLAW 
By W. R. MAC ILRATH 
T he Du Pont 
Company’s Na- 
t i 0 n a 1 Crow 
Shoot for 1919 (par- 
ticulars of which 
were given in a re- 
cent number) is a 
step in the right di- 
rection. But like 
most steps, in the right direction, it 
does not go far enough. What we need 
is a bounty law in each state on 
crow heads. Then, if at any time it 
should be found that further reduction 
in the crow population was inadvisable, 
all that would be necessary in order to 
restore the status quo ante would be to 
remove the bounty and the crows could 
be counted upon to do the rest. The 
crow is one bird that does not decrease 
in niambers as the country becomes pop- 
ulated. Any spasmodic efforts to reduce 
his numbers to the point where they 
ought to be, must, of necessity, be in- 
adequate. 
War should be waged on him all the 
year round in the same manner as the 
government wages war on coyotes and 
wolves in the stock-raising states. It 
would not be necessary to hire govern- 
ment hunters for the crow. Boys could 
be counted on to get busy with their 
22s and carry the law into effect. Also 
plenty of men who like shotgun work, 
could be led to take an interest in it if 
they could be shown some way to pay for 
the shells. A nominal bounty law would 
do this, and interest in shooting crows 
would grow until the menace would be 
thoroughly under control. 
The crow has friends, the same as 
all miscreants, and these friends will 
contend that he destroys wire-worms, 
cutworms, white grubs, grasshoppers, 
etc., as well as mice and injurious 
rodents. This much he has on the credit 
side of the ledger; 
he does destroy some 
of these. 
Against this the 
debit is very heavy. 
First, he destroys 
other birds which al- 
so destroy these 
things. The young 
of birds of all kinds, 
and harmless snakes 
which are beneficial, 
he kills; and who 
will venture to say 
that if they were 
permitted to live 
they would not do 
the work of destroy- 
ing crop pests as 
thoroughly as the 
crow himself. The 
few mice and other 
large destructive 
rodents that the 
crow kills and eats 
can be safely ig- 
nored in any broad consideration of the 
subject — for they represent a minimum 
of his diet at best. 
On the contrary, hear what Edward A. 
Samuel in his book on the birds of New 
England and the adjacent states says: 
“I have watched crows with field glasses 
from my hilltop again and again, and 
I have never kept one in sight for two 
hours in breeding season that I did not 
see him take eggs or young from at 
least one nest.” He then goes on to tell 
of seeing one crow despoil the nests of 
two robins, two chipping sparrows, and 
one meadow lark, in the space of one 
hour. Truly, the bird world is full of 
tragedies in the pleasant days of spring. 
T he crow is the particular enemy of 
the quail. Bob White’s nest is not 
usually sheltered by dense bush 
cover and lies open more than that of 
many birds to this rapacious murderer. 
The nests of wild ducks and song birds 
fare no better if the crows find them. 
If there are no eggs in the nest the black 
devils are not averse to tearing the young 
limb from limb and devouring them in 
the presence of thein screaming mother. 
For it seems to be necessary to the crow’s 
health that they have meat. It is a mat- 
ter of record that certain crows in cap- 
tivity were dying, and upon a meat ra- 
tion bping restored to them they soon 
got well. 
The crow is a natural scavenger and 
does not mind if his meat is a little 
“high.” In fact he 
seems to prefer it 
that way. Proof of 
this is found around 
the slaughter houses, 
around the carcasses 
of dead animals in 
the fields, and around 
the edges of drying- 
up ponds and lakes where dead fish lie. 
The existence of such conditions always 
act as a magnet to crows, and they 
gather from afar to the feast. 
Those who have caught crows when 
young and tamed them say that they 
have no natural affection for their mas- 
ters like that of a dog. Their whole in- 
terest centers on getting something to 
eat. They are natural thieves and mur- 
derers, the coyotes of the bird world, and 
there should be a bounty on them as 
there is on coyotes. While the destruc- 
tive hawks, like the goshawk. Cooper’s 
hawk, and the sharpshin hawk may mere 
properly be compared to the timber 
wolves of the air because of their bold- 
ness and audacity, and their taste for 
meat with warm blood in it; these are 
comparatively few in numbers (in which 
the comparison still holds) and for that 
reason are less destructive on the whole 
to the bird life than the crow horde. 
Then there is something magnificent 
that commands respect, even admiration, 
in the hawk character that is absent in 
the crow. The racy lines of his figure, 
his barred plumage, the expression of 
his countenance, the fire in his eye, his 
ringing scream from the sky, his bold 
audacity and meteoric flight with talons 
spread to kill — all make for respect while 
we deplore the destruction he works. 
There is something about it that thrills 
the soul. Once I saw a sharpshin in pur- 
suit of a covey of quail. The quail 
passed overhead from behind with a roar 
like a miniature 
train passing over- 
head on a trestle. 
Fifty yards behind 
the lone pursuer w’as 
burning up the air 
in silent flight, com- 
ing like the air ban- 
dit that he is; and 
two hundred yards 
beyond he struck the 
covey and exploded 
them like the cue- 
ball does the rack-up 
on the break. Once 
he struck and a quail 
fell like a plummet! 
Then the chase 
passed on out of 
sight, the hawk 
never faltering a 
second on ac- 
count of the quail he 
muffed. There is 
that quality in «. 
hawk that there K 
(Photograph copyrighted ipiu by A. K. Levciiiife.; 
Crows stealing hen’s eggs from a chicken run 
