The Overbrook Crackle Roost 



BY C. J. PECK 



The Overbrook Grackle Roost is situated upon the property 

 of Mr. David L. Hess at the corner of Sixtj'-third street and 

 Lansdowne avenue, Philadelphia. The estate comprises about 

 ten acres, is rolling and wooded and has an artificial lake of 

 about an acre in extent. The trees are deciduous with a goodly 

 sprinkling of conifers and are of fair size. The roost has been 

 in constant use for more than twenty years — how much more I 

 have been unable to ascertain. 



January. — Fewer birds use the roost during this month than 

 at any other time of the year. On a few very severe nights the 

 roost may be deserted, but such nights are rare and usually four 

 or five hundred birds remain throughout the month. 



February. — The first three weeks of the month are very similar 

 to January, the number of Crackles varying from none to several 

 hundred according as the weather is mild or severe. During 

 the last week of the month the migration begins and the num- 

 ber of birds is considerably increased by early arrivals from the 

 south. Probably five thousand birds use the roost during the 

 last few days of February. 



March. — The number of birds rapidly increases throughout 

 the month until from twenty to twenty-five thousand are using 

 the roost nightly. 



April and May. — About AjDril 15th, as the birds mate and 

 nest-building begins, the numbers grow fewer and continue in a 

 steady decline through the month. Comparitively few birds 

 visit the roost in May, but the number never seems to fall below 

 two or three thousand — birds which have not mated as yet or else 

 males which have nests near by, probably both. Mr. Hunt's 

 observations at Fifty-sixth and Jefferson streets seem to agree 

 with and emphasize the above. 



June. June is very much like May except that very few 



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