Fig. 16.—Crow. Length, about 19 inches.
In the other animal food of the crow are several items of the utmost economic importance. Spiders are taken in considerable numbers in May and June, but the yearly total is a little over 1 per cent of the food. In early spring crawfish are eagerly sought, and other aquatic food, as fish and mollusks, lend variety to the crow’s bill of fare the year round. In the consumption of toads, salamanders, frogs, and some snakes, which together compose a little over 2 per cent of the yearly food, the crow is doubtless doing harm. Small rodents occurred in the stomachs collected nearly every month, but it Is often difficult to determine whether small mammals found in birds’ stomachs were taken alive or found dead.
From its carrion-eating habits the crow has been unfairly criticized as a disseminator of live-stock diseases. While this may be to some extent just, the fact that there are many other important carriers which lie largely beyond our control, shows that we must seek final relief only through the strictest methods of sanitation.
The nest-robbing habit of the crow, long a serious criticism, is verified by stomach analysis. Of the 1,103 crows examined, 47 had fed on wild birds or their eggs, and the eggs of domestic fowls were found somewhat more frequently. The crow’s habit of rummaging about garbage piles may explain much of this latter material.
Of the vegetable food, corn, which is eaten every month, is the most important item and forms about 38 per cent of the diet. Much of this, however, must be considered waste, since over 60 per cent of it is consumed from the first of November to the end of March. During the periods when corn is sprouting and when in the “roasting-ear” stage the crow is eating this grain at a rate considerably less than the yearly average, and the months of smallest consumption are July and August. At times, however, the damage to corn becomes a serious problem, and were it not possible to make use of such deterrents as coal tar upon seed corn there would be little friendship for the crow in some sections of the East. The “pulling” of corn is a trait most prevalent in small-field areas. Wheat and oats suffer similar damage at times, especially in the Northwestern States, where these grains predominate. About the only safeguard to ripening grain is the constant use of powder and shot or the scarecrow.
Various kinds of cultivated fruits are also eaten, and local damage to such crops as apples, melons, peas, beans, peanuts, and almonds is occasionally reported. In long, rigorous winters, the crow, like other birds, resorts to the fruit of numerous wild plants, as dogwood, sour gum, hackberry, smilax, and the several species of sumac and poison ivy.
Damage to the eggs of poultry may be reduced to a minimum by careful housing of lasting hens, and the farmer can protect his sprouting grain to a large extent by the use of tar-coated seed. It will be well also to keep the crow within reasonable numbers on game preserves and public parks where it is desired to encourage the nesting of smaller birds. While legal protection is not needed for so wary an individual as the crow, it seems well, where local conditions have not aggravated some particular shortcomings of the bird, to allow it to continue the good services gendered to man in the destruction of noxious insects.