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escaped serious damage, but adjoining localities, where they had been 
lately systematically shot, were devastated by grasshoppers. Based on 
stomach examinations, usually the most reliable evidence on the subject, 
and from a purely agricultural standpoint, it seems that a very good case 
can be made for the Crow in the Canadian west. It does not seriously 
affect grain and does good duty in controlling some of the worst insect 
pests the farmer has to contend with. But there is another side to the 
story, and one that stomach examination does not usually show. 
As an egg eater and a young bird destroyer, the Crow is probably the 
very worst enemy of some of our largest and most useful wild birds. 
Throughout the spring and early summer, before grasshoppers are out in 
number, the Crow in the west makes its worst showing, and one that, in the 
eyes of many, cancels all the good it may do at other times. In the itemized 
tables given by Mr. Kalmbaeh, animal matter other than insects and carrion 
constituted over 10 per cent of its food for May, June, and July. In this, 
however, no account can be taken of the enormous number of eggs consumed 
during this time, as they seldom leave any record in the crop or stomach 
for subsequent recognition. Field observations show that Crows destroy 
an astonishingly large proportion of the eggs of water fowl and upland 
game. Probably in many cases of the first layings of these birds scarcely 
one out of four is brought to hatching. Later broods, when the cover is 
better grown, fare better, but even they suffer severely and in any event 
several weeks are lost of the precious summer in which to mature and harden 
the young generation in preparation for the hardships of migration and 
winter. It is nothing uncommon to see newly hatched broods of ducks as 
late as the end of August, the results of several interruptions to breeding. 
Of course, all the nest destruction cannot be blamed on Crows. Coyotes, 
dogs, cats, the trampling cattle, and other factors are also to a greater or 
less degree responsible. But taking such evidence as the culprit leaves 
behind, it is only too evident that the Crow is the cause of the larger propor- 
tion of loss. A dozen nests may be found occupied one day and destroyed 
the next, with suggestions or evidence of Crows about them. A Duck or 
Prairie Chicken flushed from the nest in sight of the ever vigilant marauder 
puts him at interested attention immediately, and if watched, he will be 
seen to investigate the promising spot as soon as the intruder has left. 
Crows also profit by disturbances in large nesting communities, such as of 
Gulls or Terns, that cause the owners to leave their premises temporarily 
unguarded; later examination generally shows the clean sweep they make 
on the opportunity. During the nesting season they hunt indefatigably for 
eggs and seem to favour them above all other food and the thoroughness 
with which they search all possible grounds only raises wonder that any 
are left to hatch. However good the Crow may be as an insect destroyer, 
it is doubtful if it can, in this direction, replace the birds that it supplants. 
It will certainly take a number of Crows to replace the work of a covey 
of Prairie Chicken that one Crow has destroyed, and when the great number 
of other birds so lost are taken into consideration, it is very questionable 
how far, if at all, the evidence is in its favour. In the case cited by Mr. 
Criddle, it may be held that the crows had already eliminated the majority 
of other grasshopper destroyers before they were themselves killed off. 
Such things as these cannot fail to impress the unprejudiced observer, and 
when he marks the dearth of bird life in situations that seem most favour- 
able, but where Crows and Magpies are numerous, he cannot help but add 
