120 RAMBLES OF 



ing them, with two or three guns, a dozen or more 

 would be destroyed. It was of course needless to 

 expect to find a similar opportunity in the same place 

 for a long time afterwards, as those which escaped 

 had too good memories to return to so disastrous a 

 spot. By ascertaining other situations at consider- 

 able distances, we could every now and then obtain 

 similar advantages over them. 



About the years 1800-1-2-3-4, the crows were 

 so vastly accumulated and destructive in the State 

 of Maryland, that the government, to hasten their 

 diminution, received their heads in payment of 

 taxes, at the price of three cents each. The store- 

 keepers bought them of the boys and shooters, who 

 had no taxes to pay, at a rather lower rate, or ex- 

 changed powder and shot for them. This measure 

 caused a great havoc to be kept up among them, and 

 in a few years so much diminished the grievance, 

 that the price was withdrawn. Two modes of shoot- 

 ing them in considerable numbers were followed, and 

 with great success : the one, that of killing them 

 while on the wing towards the roost; and the other, 

 attacking them in the night, when they have been 

 for some hours asleep. I have already mentioned 

 the regularity with which vast flocks move from 

 various quarters of the country to their roosting- 

 places every afternoon, and the uniformity of the 

 route they pursue. In cold weather, when all the 

 small bodies of water are frozen, and they are 

 obliged to protract their flight towards the bays or 

 sea, their return is a work of considerable labour, 



