October, 1931. 
,11 
The Queensland Naturalist 
yard. If a crow is shot and hung in a conspicuous place, 
the others will give that place a wide berth. The same 
applies to the cultivation paddock or orchard. For spread- 
ing the pear, a tax of 4d. per head was placed on them, 
and crows were shot and poisoned in thousands. The 
result of this destruction I will give later. I will only 
say here, that the money spent on their destruction was 
wasted, as the cactoblastis caterpillar wiped out more 
pear in a few months than the crows would spread in a 
lifetime. 
Now for the good points. Crows are omnivirous. 
Wherever insect plagues are found, there will be the 
crows hard at work. Wherever cattle are, there are the 
crows cleaning the ticks off them. Put a mob of ticky 
cattle through a yard, as soon as the cattle are gone the 
crows will be in the yard cleaning up any fallen ticks. 
Follow 7 the kangaroo shooter, the wallaby, and “possum” 
snarers who destroy hundreds of thousands of animals in a 
season. The pelt is taken off and the carcase left to breed 
millions of blow 7 flies, before this can happen, along comes 
the* ctow r and the result is a cleaned skeleton, thus saving 
thousands of sheep from destruction. It is estimated that 
something like a million pounds is lost annually to A. 
tralia through the ravages of the blow fly. 
And now I will show how 7 the destruction of the Crowds 
was disastrous. Twelve months after the price was put 
on their heads, I w r as in Central Queensland, and visited 
several shooters 7 camps. Carcases were everywhere, and 
were a seething mass. The crows had been practically 
wflped out. 
Fortunately, they are again increasing. Just think of 
the number of grasshoppers and other insects a brood of 
young crows would consume in one day. Crowds have 
from four to six eggs for a setting. 
I could give other instances of the value of crows 
but I think I have said enough to show 7 the crow 7 is not 
so black as he looks. 
BIRD NOTES, EIGHT MILE PLAINS, OCTOBER, 
1931. 
(Contributed by Mrs. COMRIE-SMITII.) 
I have lately been seeing some of the Spring migrants 
which come to nest with us, and some of which v 7 e just get 
a glimpse of as they pass south. 
The Leaden Flycatcher ( Myiagra rubecula) arrived on 
September 13th. It always nests in our paddock, making 
a very small cup built on a horizontal, sometimes dead, 
