144 SPRINQ AT THE CAPITAL. 



that, when food was scarcest, the policy of separating 

 into small bands or pairs, and dispersing over a wide 

 country, would prevail, as a few might subsist where a 

 larger number would starve. The truth is, however, 

 that in winter, food can be had only in certain clearly 

 defined districts and tracts, as along rivers and the 

 shores of bays and lakes. 



A few miles north of Newburg, on the Hudson, the 

 crows go into winter quarters in the same manner, 

 flying south in the morning and returning again at 

 night, sometimes hugging the hills so close during a 

 strong wind, as to expose themselves to the clubs and 

 stones of school-boys ambushed behind trees and 

 fences. The belated ones, that come laboring along 

 just at dusk, are often so overcome by the long journey 

 and the strong current, that they seem almost on the 

 point of sinking down whenever the wind or a rise in 

 the ground calls upon them for an extra effort. 



The turkey-buzzards are noticeable about Washing- 

 ton as soon as the season begins to open, sailing 

 leisurely along two or three hundred feet over head, or 

 sweeping low over some common or open space, where, 

 perchance, a dead puppy or pig or fowl has been thrown. 

 Half a dozen will sometimes alight about some such 

 object out on the commons, and with their broad dusky 

 wings lifted up to their full extent, threaten and chase 

 each other, while perhaps one or two are feeding. 

 Their wings are very large and flexible, and the 

 slightest motion of them, while the bird stands upon 



