412 Townsend, A Winter Crow Roost. [o"t. 



marshes and beaches furnish a bountiful supply of food in the form 

 of molluscs and crustaceans as well as in dead fish and other carrion 

 brought up by the tides. In fact it is these marshes and beaches 

 that make such a great concourse of crows possible ; — the inland 

 country is able to support but a mere fraction of such a multitude. 

 If the winter is a prolonged and severe one, the food problem be- 

 comes more and more difficult. All the bayberry bushes that are 

 not covered with snow are stripped of their berries; the red flames 

 of the sumac are battered and reduced to a spindling central 

 stalk with but a few red furry seeds remaining. The upper beach, 

 the source of so much food supply in dead fish, crabs and molluscs, 

 is encased in ice and built up into a wall; the marshes with their 

 wealth of small snails and mussels is sealed several feet deep in 

 tumbled cakes of ice, and the tide rises and falls in the creeks and 

 larger estuaries under an unbroken icy mantle. All the uplands 

 are buried in snow. It is difficult to conceive how this multitude 

 of red-blooded active birds can glean enough food under these 

 conditions. The number of food calories needed by each Crow 

 must be large. But the Crow like the Indian and all creatures of 

 nature is well able to take care of himself and to utilize every 

 possible source of food supply. Neither a feast nor a famine 

 disturbs his equanimity unless the latter is too prolonged. 



Although most of the birds appeared to be endowed with plenty 

 of strength and energy, one at least on February 22 seemed to be 

 suffering from the hard times. This Crow alighted in a feeble 

 tottering manner on a post within forty yards of me, and balanced 

 himself with difficulty. I walked to within thirty yards of him 

 when he wearily took wing only to alight in a similar way on an- 

 other post a couple of hundred yards away. When flushed from 

 this he managed to fly a few rods to the roosting grove. 



Two other Crows previous to this incident were found dead 

 near the roost. Both were normal in size as shown by measure- 

 ments, 1 and neither showed any signs of injury. One was very thin. 

 The case of the other is worth recording in detail. It was on 



1 In 'The Birds of Essex County,' p. 243, I recorded the examination of a Crow found 

 dead early in March, 1904. "The body was greatly emaciated, the intestines nearly 

 empty, and the stomach contained only a husk of oats and a piece of coal ashes. There 

 was no evidence of disease. The bird weighed only ten ounces and was small in every 

 way, — a case of the small and unfit perishing." 



