COMMON BIRDS OF SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES. 
17 
COMMON CROW . 1 
Though not possessing the proverbially bad reputation of its kin of the Northern 
States, the crow (fig. 8) of the South is well known in a large part of the area of which 
this bulletin treats. Throughout the coastal region east of Texas it is intimately 
associated with its maritime relative, the fish crow, 2 and in winter these two have much 
the same food habits. 
The series of 108 stomachs available for examination, while too few to show accu¬ 
rately the food habits of the crow over so large an area, has verified much of the infor¬ 
mation gained from field observation. The food of the crow of the South is much like 
that of its northern relative, such differences as are observed being due to the relative 
abundance of certain food items in the two areas. The southern crow has many of the 
virtues of the northern bird, and, so far as the evidence at hand shows, certain 
corvine failings, as nest robbing and injuring sprouting corn, seem less pronounced. 
Examination of stomachs revealed 31 per cent animal food and G9 per cent vegetable. 
Insects comprised a little less than a fifth of the yearly sustenance, and were made up 
of many of the common pests, as May beetles and their larvae (white grubs), which 
were eaten in 
every m o n t h 
save two; wee¬ 
vils of several 
kinds; grasshop¬ 
pers (nearly 5 
per cent); and 
several species 
of caterpillars. 
Such beneficial 
insects as preda¬ 
cious ground 
beetles and bugs 
and parasitic 
hymenopterans 
formed less than 
2 per cent. 
Crustaceans, 
by far the 
largest part of 
which were 
crawfish, constituted an important food item (7.4 per cent). These creatures in some 
sections of the South are the cause of considerable damage, especially to corn and cot¬ 
ton. A few mollusks, amphibians, and fish (about 4 per cent) indicate the aquatic 
feeding habits of these birds. Fragments of the shell of a hen’s egg found in one 
stomach supply the only evidence of that objectionable trait of which the northern 
crow is so frequently accused. No remains of wild birds or their eggs were found. 
In the vegetable food, corn and wild fruits stand out prominently. The former 
constituted about a fourth of the yearly subsistence, but a large portion was taken in 
winter when it must have been secured from outstanding shocks or picked up as waste. 
Such wild fruits as sour gum, poisonous and nonpoisonous sumacs, pokeberry, black¬ 
berries, greenbrier, and the like composed nearly a third of the food, and were so 
prominent probably because of the great abundance of many of these plants through¬ 
out the South. Grain, other than corn, and a little cultivated fruit also were taken. 
Field observation has shown that certain other items not revealed by laboratory 
examination enter into the diet of the southern crow. Watermelons are frequently 
1 Corvus brachyrhynchos. 2 Corvus ossifragvj. 
50402°—Bull. 755—16 - 3 
B2 148-63 
Fig. 8. —Crow. Length, about 19t inches. 
