CALENDAR OF THE CROWS. 83 



rays of the orb of day beget a certain degree of 

 warmth on and in the bosom of earth and in the 

 veins of her parasitic creatures, the great awak- 

 ening, called spring, is at hand. The germs of 

 passion are called into new life; the desire for 

 mating is engendered ; and the crow begins to 

 build a nest in which to rear its offspring. 'Not 

 on a certain day, as measured by man's chronol- 

 ogy, not even in a certain week or a certain 

 month, is the nesting begun. It is only when 

 the heat and power of the sun's genial rays have 

 showered down for days that the crow begins to 

 build. It then knows that soon the warmth and 

 moisture of that season which we call spring 

 will envelop the land. By inherited tendencies 

 or by instinct the parent crows also know the 

 allotted time in which their eggs will hatch and 

 in which the young will be ready to leave the 

 nest. 



From midsummer on, methinks one day is as 

 another in crow life. They gather in small 

 colonies or communities which in time become 

 an integral part of a larger group. They then 

 have a favorite roosting place to which they re- 



