124 CROW. 



elevated but a. little above high-water mark, and covered with a thick 

 growth of reeds. This appears to be the grand rendezvous, or head- 

 quarters of the greater part of th'e Crows within forty or fifty miles of 

 the spot. It is entirely destitute of trees, the Crows alighting and 

 nestling among the reeds, which by these means are broken down and 

 matted together. The noise created by those multitudes, both in their 

 evening assembly, and re-ascension in the morning ; and the depreda- 

 tions they commit in the immediate neighborhood of this great resort, 

 are almost incredible. Whole fields of corn are sometimes laid waste, 

 by thousands alighting on it at once, with appetites whetted by the fast 

 of the preceding night ; and the utmost vigilance is unavailing to pre- 

 vent, at least, a partial destruction of this their favorite grain. Like 

 the stragglers of an immense, undisciplined, and rapacious army, they 

 spread themselves over the fields, to plunder and destroy wherever they 

 alight. It is here that the character of the Crow is universally exe- 

 crated ; and to say to the man who has lost his crop of corn by these 

 birds, that Crows are exceedingly useful for destroying vermin, would 

 be as consolatory as to tell him who had just lost his house and furni- 

 ture by the flames, that fires are excellent for destroying bugs. 



The strong attachment of the Crows to this spot may be illustrated 

 by the following circumstance. Some years ago, a sudden and violent 

 north-east storm came on during the night, and the tide rising to an 

 uncommon height inundated the whole island. The darkness of the 

 night, the suddenness and violence of the storm, and the incessant 

 torrents of rain that fell, it is supposed, so intimidated the Crows, that 

 they did not attempt to escape, and almost all perished. Thousands 

 of them were next day seen floating in the river ; and the wind shifting 

 to the north-west, drove their dead bodies to the Jersey side, where for 

 miles they blackened the whole shore. 



This disaster, however, seems long ago to have been repaired ; for 

 they now congregate on the Pea-Patch in as immense multitudes as 

 ever.* 



So universal is the hatred to Crows, that few states, either here or 



* The following is extracted from a late number of a newspaper printed in that 

 neighborhood: "The farmers of Red Lion Hundred held a meeting at the village 

 of St. Georges, in the state of Delaware, on Monday, the 6th inst., to receive pro- 

 posals of John Deputy, on a plan for banishing or destroying the Crov^'s. Mr. 

 Deputy's plan, being heard and considered, was approved, and a committee 

 appointed to contract with him, and to procure the necessary funds to carry the 

 same into effect. Mr. Deputy proposes that for five hundred dollars he will engage 

 to kill or banish the Crows from their roost on the Pea-Patch, and give security to 

 return the money on failure. 



" The sum of five hundred dollars being thus required, the committee beg leave 

 to address the farmers and others of Newcastle county, and elsewhere, on the 

 subject." 



