308 
The Grow 
of most unusual wisdom, his race would long since have passed away. |1 
Think of the hundreds of thousands of farmers who, through the cen-|i 
turies, have tried every possible means of destroying these birds! Noil 
law in any State protects them, and many times bounties have been paid ■ 
for their heads, thus ofifering a special inducement to men to kill them. | 
Guns, traps, poison, and destruction of their nests have all alike been in L 
vain, for the Crows live on in apparently undiminished numbers. 
As a matter of fact, the Crow is not altogether a bad bird, and if he 
were understood better I have little doubt that he would have far more ' 
friends than foes. He eats a great many harmful i 
Insect Food insects, and in this way makes amends for his sins in : 
the cornfield. May-beetles, June-bugs, and other ii 
insects of a similar character, are eaten by Crows in great numbers dur- 
ing the spring and early summer. Some observers state that baby Crows i 
are fed to a very large extent on this kind of diet. Crows like grass- 
hoppers, especially in the spring, and annually consume large quantities ^ 
of them. They eat also, among other objects, such queer foods as frogs, , 
toads, and young turtles, and even small snakes find favor in their eyes. | 
The wild fruit they take is mostly such as that of the dogwood and the | 
sour gum. Sumac-berries of different kinds are eaten. In fact, the Crow 
will sample almost anything that looks as if it might be good to consume, , 
such as frozen apples, pumpkins, turnips, potatoes, or any other fruit or ; 
vegetable that may be discarded and left to lie in the orchard or field. 
In cold, snowy weather, food sometimes becomes very scarce. On such i 
occasions Crows will feast on any dead animal to be found, such as a I 
horse or a cat. They sometimes go down to the shore and hunt for clams, ; 
crayfish, and the bodies of dead fish that have washed 
A Scavenger ashore. This practice, however, may more often be 
observed in the Fish Crow, a bird slightly smaller 
than our common Crow, and found chiefly along the sea-coast, and 
about the larger lakes and water-courses. 
The Crow, in its various forms, has a wide distribution throughout 
North America ; and there is hardly a boy or girl who does not know its 
cry, or who is not familiar with the sight of the big, black fellow flying 
over the fields or resting for a moment on the top of a tree by the road- 
side. It is undoubtedly the most common and most generally known 
bird in the United States. 
Classification and Distribution 
The Crow belongs to the Order Passeres, Family Corvidce, Subfamily Corvinco, 
and Genus Corvus. Its scientific name is Corvus brachyrhynchos. Its range in 
summer covers the whole continent northward to Newfoundland and Central 
Quebec in the East, and southern Mackenzie in the Northwest; and it remains in 
winter throughout the whole United States and southern Ontario. In addition to 
the eastern type, two subspecies are recognized, C. b. hesperus, of the Rocky Moun- 
tains and Pacific Coast, and C. b. pascuus of Florida. 
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