Bears  in  the  United  States  probably  harm  the
birds  very  little;  they  are  usually  too  slow  of
movement  to  capture  anything  that  can  fly,
and  the  damage  they  do  in  this  direction  is
probably  limited  to  the  devouring  of  eggs  in
nests  which  they  happen  to  stumble  upon.
That  at  certain  times  and  places  bears  may
menace  a  colony  of  birds  is  pointed  out  by  Dr.
Charles  H.  Townsend  who  has  kindly  called  my
attention  to  Captain  Cartwright's  Journal  of
June  1 8,  1777,  where  it  is  recorded  that  polar
bears  were  killed  and  their  stomachs  found  to  be
filled  with  the  eggs  of  eider  ducks.
Raccoons  eat  a  wide  variety  of  food,  of  which
in  most  places  young  birds  and  birds'  eggs  prob-
ably constitute  only  a  small  part.  I  doubt  if
they  often  capture  full-grown  wild  birds.  Water-
fowl sitting  on  their  nests  may  suffer  in  certain
localities,  and  perhaps  raccoons  occasionally
capture  birds  on  their  roosts  at  night.  Com-
paratively slow-moving  creatures,  fond  of  fruit,


Destruction  by  Natural  Enemies       25

ripe  corn,  insects,  crawfish,  frogs,  wild  mice,  and
domestic  poultry,  they  would  as  a  rule  be  likely
to  destroy  wild  birds'  nests  only  when  they
happened  accidentally  to  find  them.  I  once  had
two  raccoons  in  a  large  pen  in  which  I  had
placed  a  tree  for  them  to  climb.  One  morning,
having  a  live  crow  and  no  special  place  for  him,
I  put  him  in  the  pen  with  the  raccoons.  He  flew
about,  made  himself  at  home,  and  his  hosts  seem-
ed barely  interested  in  him.  Ten  minutes  after
dark  I  went  to  see  if  everything  was  all  right  and
found  nothing  left  of  the  crow  but  his  feathers.
