148 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



thinned its ranks during the last twenty years. We still call it 

 a common summer resident, only because its size, color and mode 

 of living in the open make it possible that not a single individual 

 escapes notice. A like number of a small, plain colored, secretive 

 species would constitute one of our rarest breeders. Lately their 

 killing for millinery purposes has been openly recommended 

 by newspapers as a source of revenue, and whenever the pleasure 

 of killing can be made remunerative devotees are not lacking. 

 As a winter resident the Crow is still numerous, but not nearly as 

 much as formerly . There are many winter roosts , large and small , 

 scattered over the state. Formerly when St. Louis dumped all 

 its refuse and garbage into the Mississippi, the roost on Arsenal 

 Island opposite the southern part of the city was one of the most 

 frequented in the whole country. LIundreds of thousands assem- 

 bled there in some winters, chiefly in November and December, 

 until the closing of the river drove most of them farther south 

 below the mouth of the Ohio where the Mississippi never closes. 

 As long as the river was open the Crows were not in want of 

 provisions even when the ground was buried under snow, and it 

 was a spectacle never to be forgotten to see hundreds of crows 

 dotting the icy shore or drifting down on huge cakes of ice, all 

 eagerly looking out for floating morsels which they picked up 

 cleverly and carried to the shore. Those that had drifted down 

 far enough came flying back low above the water, to take another 

 floating position higher up. All together they made a most ani- 

 mated picture. When httle or no snow was on the ground, 

 a state of affairs which may be called the rule in our region. Crows 

 had no difhcuty in finding enough to eat, but they had to go many 

 miles for it and visit fields and woods and i)astures and sundry 

 places in search of mice and carrion, waste grain and insects, 

 dead or alive, and seeds of all kinds, acorns and whatever is scat- 

 tered about. Crows are omnivorus and most beneficial scav- 

 engers in their winter haunts. They began to come to the island 

 roost earl}^ in September, and real migration set in early in 

 October with steadily increasing numbers until the middle of 

 November, when about the maximum frequency was reached 

 and maintained until either ice and snow shut off their food supply 

 or mild and open weather awakened the desire to return to their 

 summer home. All through fall and in moderately cold weather in 

 winter, the Crows spent the nights perched ten to fifteen feet above 

 the ground in the willow thicket of the island, but when the cold 

 became intense they deserted the willows entirely and spent the 



