18 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 



ill many i>lafeh>. The islaiul is tlierofore steadily grow- 

 ing; it is two miles long, one-fourtli mile wide, mostly 

 grown np with willows and cotton woods, from twenty- 

 tive years old at its present head, where the flora is 

 already more varied by admixture of shrubs and climb- 

 ers, to one year old and entirely new growth at its recent 

 additions. The foot of the island is a sandbank, change- 

 able in size according to the stage of water, at the i)resent 

 low water about half a mile long, and reaching to the 

 Illinois shore in the vicinity of the Bessemer Steel 

 AVorks. 



The island is not inhabitetl excei)t by a single old man, 

 who keeps a few cows in summer and tries to raise a 

 little crop of corn for their feed. He does not molest 

 any of its feathered visitors, but the island is a nmch 

 frequented shooting ground for boy hunters, who make 

 it very unsafe on Sundays. 



This island has been chosen by the Crows for their 

 winter roost, and during the fifteen years in which I 

 lived in the neighborhood, I have seen them regularly 

 every winter. 



The reason why the Crows selected this island seems to 

 be the convenient position in regard to food supi)ly 

 coujiled with comparative safety from nightly raids. 



The food supply is twofold: On the land, the environs 

 of a large city surrounded by gardens and dairies and 

 pastures, etc. 



On the water, the rich harvest provided by the dump- 

 ing places of the city, which throws its garbage into the 

 river to carry it off. 



The Crow is the typical scavenger, and the choice of 

 its winter roost proves it. If it could live on com and 

 mice, it would spend the wint<'r hawk-fashion in solitude 

 near some out-of-the-way cornfield, but it is no mice 

 destroyer. Neither is it a grain eater. 1 have examined 

 thousands of pellets (tlif^ indigestible ])arts of food 



