. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. CHECKS UPON INCREASE OF USEFUL BIRDS. 369 of both Crow and Jay have been published elsewhere.^ The American Crow (Corvus americanus) is a most deadly enemy to birds from the size of the Chipping Sparrow to that of the Night Heron, Ruffed Grouse, and Black Duck, for it contin- ually steals the eggs and young of such birds and poultry. The evidence on this point i
. Useful birds and their protection. Containing brief descriptions of the more common and useful species of Massachusetts, with accounts of their food habits, and a chapter on the means of attracting and protecting birds. Birds; Birds. CHECKS UPON INCREASE OF USEFUL BIRDS. 369 of both Crow and Jay have been published elsewhere.^ The American Crow (Corvus americanus) is a most deadly enemy to birds from the size of the Chipping Sparrow to that of the Night Heron, Ruffed Grouse, and Black Duck, for it contin- ually steals the eggs and young of such birds and poultry. The evidence on this point is so con vineing and voluminous that it is impossible to avoid this conclu- sion, although it is quite prob- able that only certain individual Crows are the criminals. Crows not only destroy eggs and young birdsj but they have been known to band together to hunt down and kill adult birds as large as the Ruffed Grouse. The well-known Blue Jay {Oyanocitta cristata) is destructive to the eggs of the smaller birds, whose nests it robs systematically, and it has frequently been seen to kill the young. The Robin and other larger birds will drive the Jay away from their nests, but it often succeeds in robbing them by stealth. Vireos, Warblers, and Spar- rows it regards very little, and plunders their nests without noticing their agonized cries. Jays and Crows together sometimes make it very difficult for other birds to raise any young. It would not be advisable to exterminate the Crow, for it has many useful habits; but it should not be allowed to increase at the expense of the smaller birds. Crows are valuable as grasshopper killers, and they are destructive to the gipsy moth. Jays eat the eggs of the tent caterpillar moth, and the larvae of the gipsy moth and other hairy eater-. Fig. 155, — Blue Jay, one- half natural size. ' See The Crow in Massachusetts, Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture, 1896, pp. 285-289; Two Years with the Birds on a Farm, Ibid., 1
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublisherb, booksubjectbirds
