CROW. 



175 



grand rendezvous, or head-quarters of the greater part of the 

 Crows within forty or fifty miles of the spot. It is entirely des- 

 titute of trees, the Crows alighting and nestling among the 

 reeds, which by these means are broken down and matted to- 

 gether. The noise created by those multitudes, both in their 

 evening assembly, and re-ascension in the morning; and the 

 depredations they commit in the immediate neighbourhood of 

 this great resort, are almost incredible. Whole fields of corn 

 are sometimes laid waste, by thousands alighting on it at once, 

 with appetites whetted by the fast of the preceding night; and 

 the utmost vigilance is unavailing to prevent, at least, a partial 

 destruction of this their favourite grain. Like the stragglers of an 

 immense, undisciplined, and rapacious, army, they spread them- 

 selves over the fields, to plunder and destroy wherever they 

 alight. It is here that the character of the Crow is universally 

 execrated; and to say to the man who has lost his crop of corn by 

 these birds, that Crows are exceedingly useful for destroying 

 vermin, would be as consolatory as to tell him who had just 

 lost his house and furniture by the flames, that fires are excel- 

 lent for destroying bugs. 



The strong attachment of the Crows to this spot may be illus- 

 trated by the following circumstance. Some years ago, a sud- 

 den and violent north-east storm came on during the night, and 

 the tide rising to an uncommon height inundated the whole isl- 

 and. The darkness of the night, the suddenness and violence 

 of the storm, and the incessant torrents of rain that fell, it is 

 supposed, so intimidated the Crows, that they did not attempt 

 to escape, and almost all perished. Thousands of them, were 

 next day seen floating in the river; and the wind shifting to the 

 north-west, drove their dead bodies to the Jersey side, where 

 for miles they blackened the whole shore. 



This disaster, however, seems long ago to have been repair- 

 ed; for they now congregate on the Pea-Patch in as immense 

 multitudes as ever. * 



* The following is extracted from a late number of a newspaper printed in 

 that neighbourhood: " The farmers of Red Lion Hundred held a meeting at 



