APPENDIX. 
375 
From C. S. Paine, East Bethel, Vt. : 
Crows come into our shade trees early in the morning and take the eggs and young of the 
oriole and robin ; I think that over half of the nests of our small birds are destroyed by them. 
From D. Y. Overton, Burlington. Iowa: 
The common crow, especially at the east, is an inveterate robber of birds’ nests, and also de- 
stroys their young. I have seen him at the nests of the robin with the eggs in his mouth ; and 
have seen him with young bluejaysjn his beak as he took them from the nest. 
From Charles A. Davis, Burlington, Vt. : 
I have seen crows catch and carry to their nests eight or ten young bank swallows which were 
feathered out. 
From Samuel N. Rhoades, Haddonfield, N. J. : 
The crow steals eggs and young birds from the purple grackle, red-winged blackbird, robin, 
kingbird, Carolina dove, quail, and woodcock. It also destroys the eggs of several species of 
herons. 
Prof. D. E. Lantz, of Manhattan, Kansas, writes : 
I have not known the crow to trouble the poultry-yard in Kansas, but it is a noted robber of 
the eggs of quail and pinnated grouse. 
Dr. A. B. MacCrea, of Berwick, Pa., writes: 
A friend was mowing in the meadow this summer (1885) and uncovered a quail’s nest contain- 
ing some twenty eggs. He concluded to place them under a hen and went to the barn for a 
basket ; when he returned a crow was finishing his dinner on the last egg. 
In all the dark history of the crow’s relations to other birds there is nothing which 
can be fairly called a bright spot, and only here and there a record is found which 
serves to render the page a little less gloomy. One of these grains of comfort is 
found in the fact that in its wholesale attacks on other birds a few species suffer 
which are scarcely better than itself. The bluejay and the purple grackle are known 
to destroy the eggs and young of smaller birds, and their own nests are frequently 
pillaged by the more powerful crow. Under favorable circumstances crows are 
known to destroy the eggs and young of the English .sparrow, and they have done 
good service in this way about the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, D. C., 
where it is no uncommon sight during the summer to see a crow (most often per- 
haps the Fish Crow) feeding on the young of these birds. 
Insect Food of the Crow. 
In attempting to study the insect food of the crow, two different questions present 
, themselves at. the outset. These are: (a) How many insects does the crow eat? 
and (6) What kinds of insects does it eat? The first question was answered in a 
general way more than half a century ago, and there is no reason now to deny the 
oft-repeated statement that the crow feeds largely on insects. The second question, 
however, is not only much more important, but much less easily answered ; for not 
all insects are injurious, and comparatively few persons can discriminate between 
the useful and harmful, especially when watching them from a distance or examin- 
ing those which have been crushed and swallowed by a bird. 
While, therefore, the field-notes of casual observers may help materially to answer 
the question as to the extent to which the crow feeds on insects in general, they can 
seldom be relied upon for an accurate knowledge of the insect species destroyed. As 
already stated, this latter question must be answered mainly by the critical study of 
the stomach-contents of large numbers of crows. Nevertheless, the accumulated 
observations of years as to the crow’s manner of feeding, together with notes on 
places most visited at certain times, and the insects most abundant in those places 
at such times, must not be disregarded, many such observations being of the great- 
est practical value. 
In the course of the present investigation on the crow, hundreds of notes on its 
insect-eating habits have been received from correspondents, and in many cases the 
observations are of greatest interest and value. N ot a few of these notes relate to 
observations made under peculiarly favorable circumstances, and though we cannot 
feel perfectly sure of the correct identification, for example, of the Hessian fly and 
army-worm, we see no reason to doubt the statements of any farmer as to grasshop- 
