Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1911-07-14
The Crow and Song Birds

The crow has nearly always been
spoken of as being valuable to the
farmer. Very often you see an ar
ticle by some writer praising the
crow, then l think of the motto that
used to hang in the schoolrOom, "Do
you know it, or only think you know
it," We have some good writer's, SO
good that they can write about al
most anything, whether they know
anything about it or not. 1 do not
think there are many things created
that are not good for something, but
the crow is like the dog that was
good to bring the COWS, but when
that was done he would drink the
milk, eat the eggs and kill the sheep
l have lived on the farm all my life,
and have had a chance to know what
the crow doeS>fOr living. Sixteen
years ago saw the crows carry the
you 6 birds from robins nest, also
young birds from a goldfinch's nest,
10Th the same day, the mother birds
fighting their best. This caused me
to make study of the crow. have
seen this repeated time and again
until within the last five years the
seen this repeated time and again,
crows have got so numerous they get
nearly all the birds eggs. Crows take
up their claim and build on an aver
age one nest for each one hundred
acres in this part of the state. Then
you can see the crow all summer,
carefully sauntering over each foot
of your meadows, ON every fence, and
in every brush, taking all the eggs he
can find from the nest of the brown
bird, robin, redbird, dove, mocking
bird, quail, etc., in fact all the birds
that build open nests. He does not
miss many except the English spar
row, which encloses it's nest. This is
the reason that sparrows are so nu-
merous. Some say that the crow
catches worms. There is no rubbing
it out, the crow is practically annihi-
lating our song birds that catch ten
thousand worms where he catches
one. The birds used to be so plentiful
that it would be continuous frolic
in the orchards with chirp and song
from morn till night, but that is no
more in the rural districts. They
build more in the villages where the
crow does not go. No robins have
built their nests on my farm for three
years, except last summer a pair
came and nested on the garden fence
They were safe until the second day
after the young birds left their nests.
They were clumsy and flew only a
short distance at first. They got out
in the orchard, when 1 heard the
mother bird fighting something, mad l
went out just in time to see the crows
carrying away the young birds, leav-
ing the mother bird in sorrow after
all her tender care.
Last summer one of my neighbors
told me that he was mad at the crows
because they robbed his quail's nest,
he saw them do it that morning.
I usually have from eighteen to
thirty quail on my farm each spring;
1 have twenty-six this spring, enough
to raise twelve or more fiocks, near
ly two hundred quail, but if two f1ocks
escape the eye of the crow it is all
that l can expect, thirty or forty quail
this fall. l think that I am safe in
saying in this part of the state the
crow gets sixty per cent of the quail
eggs. If the legislature would pro-
tect the quail or put them on the song
bird list, and leave the crow alone, in
less than ten years the quail would
be very scarce wherever there is
shrubbery or timber for the crow to
build in.
Pheasants used to be plentiful
here. Although they were protected
several years now they are gone. A
nest of pheasant eggs was as deli
cious for the crow as quail on toast
is for you. I hope to see in the near
future law that will put the crow
out of our sight, so that the song
birds may come to the front with
their song birds.
G, M, Bankes.
Morgan county, O.