Crows Zot 
winter months, and even in the nesting season they are 
separated only by short distances. This gregarious- 
ness leads them to form during the winter what are 
commonly called crow roosts, which are nothing more 
nor less than the crows of a certain section of the country 
roosting in one place. There is no uniformity as to 
the location of the roost, for it may be in evergreen 
or deciduous trees, and again among the reeds and 
grasses. ‘The evergreens would seem to form the best 
protection from storms and high winds, the most 
northern roost that I have seen being so located. 
In the early morning the roost is vacated by the 
crows, and they spread out over the surrounding 
country in search of food, going usually in bands. 
These bands quite uniformly take the same direction 
in going to their feeding grounds and in returning to 
the roost—preferably following a valley or a range of 
hills for protection from the winds. Toward evening 
the crows arrive in the neighborhood of the roost, and 
just before dark they settle upon it in a body. The 
various bands are, to some extent, under leaders. This 
is very common among gregarious animals. 
Some roosts contain as many as fifty acres, and 
probably in a roost as large as this the crows number 
as many as a hundred and fifty thousand, or even 
more. The crow roost with which I have been most 
