Are crows often seen on the ground? Do they walk or hop?
Observe and report on the crow's habits of feeding. It eats corn, potatoes, oats, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, cutworms, and occasionally birds' eggs or young birds.
Why do king-birds chase and thrash the crow? Are scarecrows effective in keeping crows off the grain fields?
Note the sentinels that are on the watch to warn other crows of danger.
Give reasons for the belief that the crow is a wise bird.
Give reasons for regarding the crow as a neighbour of doubtful character. Give reasons why crows should be protected.
Note.—Crows will not pull up corn and seed that has been covered with coal-tar before it is planted.
In addition to the animals already named, the musk-rat, raccoon, fox, flying-squirrel, robin, wren, and king-bird will be found convenient for study in many localities.
The swimming of the musk-rat, and how its shape, fur, feet, and tail fit it for a life in water are topics suitable for observational exercises, as are also its food, its winter home, and the burrows leading from the water into the banks. In the case of the winter home, the location, the structure, the submerged entrance, the living-room, and the surrounding moat, are topics of interest.