THE AMERICAN CROW. 
NOTES ON ITS HABITS ! NOTABLY FEEDING, NESTING, ROOSTING, FLIGHT, 
RELATIVE ABUNDANCE, ETC., BY VARIOUS OBSERVERS IN 
WIDELY SCATTERED LOCALITIES. 
“('owns americanus is found throughout the United States with 
the exception of Southern Florida, where it is replaced by the sub-species 
/ioridanns; and the Central Plains and Southern Rocky mountain regions, 
where the American Raven (Corvus corax) abounds.” 
More or less abundant where-ever found as a resident or as a migrant, 
with but one common name, it is perhaps better known to a larger num¬ 
ber of people than any other species indigenous to North America. 
Held up as emblematic of the fallen, defeated, or unfortunate, the 
embodiment of cunning and cruelty, and published throughout the land 
as the personification of a knave and thief ; is it any wonder that the 
ornithologist hesitates to defend the bird whose character is painted as 
black as its plumage ? Like the Blue Jay, whom ignorance and super¬ 
stition has accused of “ carrying sticks to the devil,” he is looked upon 
as the representation of evil, a sort of visible demon ; and if he is not 
just going into mischief, he is popularly supposed to be just returning 
from it. Persecuted on every hand for many decades, in the East, it is a 
wonder that the species has not become exterminated. It has certainly 
decreased in Southern Pennsylvania, though almost imperceptibly, during 
the last fifteen years. Harmless, and even beneficial two-thirds of the 
year, prejudice against it begins to wane. 
It is not mv aim to justify the destruction wrought by these birds upon 
the cultivated fruit, grain and vegetables, or the eggs and young of wild 
and domestic birds, for I know it to be considerable at certain seasons of 
the year ; but I fully believe the benefits derived from their destruction 
of injurious insects, rodents, etc. , and their work as .scavengers, largely 
offsets the damage done by them, if it does not indeed over-balance it. 
This applies to such districts as do not contain an over abundance of the 
birds. 
To the bird’s habitual watchfulness and acute senses, the situation of 
its nest, and to its breeding in the busiest time of the year, can be at- 
