Vol m^ XY ] Townsend, A Winter Crow Roost. 405 



A WINTER CROW ROOST. 1 



BY CHARLES W. TOWNSEND, M.D. 



Prior to the winter of 1916-17 most of the Crows of the eastern 

 parts of Essex County, Massachusetts, spent the nights in roosts 

 in the pine thickets at iVnnisquam and West Gloucester. Hither 

 from all directions in winter afternoons these birds could be seen 

 wending their way. The general course of flight over the Ipswich 

 dunes was from north to south. There were, however, several 

 small roosts in the Ipswich region. One was in a grove of white 

 pines and cedars on the south side of Heartbreak Hill; another, 

 which lodged about five hundred birds, was in one of the pitch pine 

 thickets of the Ipswich dunes. In November, 1916, I discovered 

 that the ground under and near the large thickets of evergreens 

 and hard woods on the southerly side of Castle Hill close to Ipswich 

 beach was covered thickly with Crow pellets and droppings. I 

 was not surprised, therefore, to find that the afternoon flight of 

 Crows was directed towards these thickets, and that the birds were 

 passing over the dunes in an opposite direction to that taken in 

 former years. Whether the great roosts at Annisquam and West 

 Gloucester have been deserted or not I cannot say, but it is evident 

 that the larger number of birds have transferred their winter 

 nights' lodgings to Castle Hill. 



Twenty-five years ago the whole southerly side of Castle and 

 High Hills was pasture and mowing land. The owner at that 

 time began planting trees on a large scale. At first only visible 

 in the grass these have grown to a height of thirty or forty feet, 

 and there is now a respectable forest over twenty or thirty acres 

 of land. The evergreen trees are largely European species — 

 Scotch and Austrian pines with spruces and firs. There is a large 

 grove of European larches, and there are patches of willows, 

 maples, ashes, buttonwoods and other deciduous trees. 



In the short winter afternoons the Crows begin their flight to 

 the roost long before sunset. By three o'clock or even as early as 

 one o'clock, especially in dark weather and in the short December 

 days, this bed-time journey begins, while in the latter part of 



1 Read before the Essex County Ornithological Club, December 10, 1917. 



