Pier eee else biOuNes Db: Ue lebeerN 33 
The Crow I would place in the same category as the Crow Blackbird. 
If anything it is even worse, for it frequently purloins young chickens 
from the dooryard (usually before the family is up or while no one is at 
home—Crows are highly intelligent and know their opportunity) and 
spies out the places where the hens lay so that it may have a nice fresh 
egg for breakfast or dinner as the case may be. Those who have not seen 
the modus operandi may wonder how a Crow can fly away with a hen’s 
egg. It is a very simple matter, for Mr. Crow just pecks his bill well into 
the egg, then holding his head with the bill straight out and slightly 
inclined upward flies away with it easy as you please. 
There is another bird nearly as bad as the Crow and the Crow Black- 
bird as a destroyer of the eggs and young of other birds (some think him 
even worse!) but sentiment—pure sentiment—prevents me from naming 
him, for I admire his beautiful coloring, neighborliness, and many inter- 
esting ways. I will not allude to him further for fear some of you may 
know him. 
Two birds which represent directly the opposite from those just men- 
tioned are the Meadowlark and the Quail. Thorough investigation of the 
food habits of the former by Professor Tube has proved it to be entirely 
beneficial to the farmer. So far as I am aware not a single thing can 
rightfully be said against this beautiful and useful bird whose sweet but 
simple and somewhat plaintive song enlivens our meadows and prairies, 
even, sometimes, on fine days during winter. 
It is a great pity that the Quail is so attractive to sportsmen and pot- 
hunters for there is no more useful bird to the farmers. It is a great 
destroyer of chinch bugs and cutworms, and were quails numerous 
enough their services in keeping these pests within bounds would un- 
doubtedly be effective. Farmers, for their own best interest, should 
protect the Quail. 
The subject of birds in their relations to the interest of the farmers and 
fruit growers involves not only the question of sentiment. But this is 
another matter and it is already time this paper should end. 
Ropert Ripeway, 
Olney, Illinois. 

