238 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



here to-day in spite of the snow. They evidently look 

 out sharp for a morsel of fish. I see where, by the 

 red maple above Pinxter Swamp, they have picked 

 over the fine dark-greenish moss from button-bush, and 

 the leaves which had formed a squirrel's nest, knock- 

 ing it down on to the river and there treading about 

 and pecking a small piece, apparently for some worms 

 or insects that were in it, as if they were hard pushed. 

 Jan. 19, 1859. By the swamp between the Hollow 

 and Peter's I see the tracks of a crow or crows, chiefly 

 in the snow, two or more inches deep, on a broad frozen 

 ditch where mud has been taken out. The perpendicu- 

 lar sides of the ditch expose a foot or two of dark, 

 sooty mud which had attracted the crows, and I see 

 where they have walked along beneath it and pecked 

 it. Even here also they have alighted on any bare spot 

 where a foot of stubble was visible, or even a rock. 

 Where one walked yesterday, I see, notwithstanding 

 the effect of the sun on it, not only the foot-tracks, 

 but the distinct impression of its tail where it alighted, 

 counting distinctly eleven (of probably twelve) feath- 

 ers, — about four inches of each, — the whole mark be- 

 ing some ten inches wide and six deep, or more like a 

 semicircle than that of yesterday. The same crow, or 

 one of the same, has come again to-day, and, the snow 

 being sticky this warm weather, has left a very dis- 

 tinct track. The width of the whole track is about two 

 and three quarters inches, length of pace about seven 

 inches, length of true track some two inches (not includ- 

 ing the nails), but the mark made in setting down the 

 foot and withdrawing it is in each case some fifteen or 



