No. 4.] THE CROW IN MASSACHUSETTS. 277 



ing live or six years, and from conversation with hunters, he 

 has learned that dnrino: the coklest weather crows disapi>ear 

 from some of the hiuh hinds in the western part of tlie State. 

 The cause of crow migrations appears to he principally a 

 scarcity of food. Crows remain even in \\'incluMnU)n in 

 seasons when the beech nuts are plentiful on the trees or 

 when carrion is to be found. They are also found along the 

 Connecticut valley throughout the entire Avinter, where, ac- 

 cording to Mr. Kirkland, they assemble in great Hocks in 

 bare spots on the meadows, and catch tield mice. These 

 flocks appear to range about twelve or fifteen miles from the 

 river, and in warm spells spread out still farther. At jVIr. 

 Kirkland's home, in Huntington, at an altitude of twelve 

 hundred feet, and in the adjacent towns of Chester, Bland- 

 ford and Chesterlield, the crows are said to remain during- 

 mild winters, roosting in hemlock forests. Durino; severe 

 weather they disappear entirely for a month or six weeks at a 

 time. Near large cities, wliere ofl'al or carrion may be found, 

 they usually remain throughout the winter in large numbers. 

 They are also found during the entire winter along the south- 

 eastern sea-coast, where the receding tides furnish them an 

 al)undance of food, and where the ground is not so heavily 

 and frequently covered Avith snow as in the interior. 



Gregarious Habits. 



Crows are very clannish in their habits, consorting to- 

 gether in flocks during the entire season, except Avhile they 

 are nesting, and assembling during the winter in roosting 

 ])laces to pass the night. 



Professor Barrows has given an excellent account of the 

 roosting habits of crows in the middle and some of the west- 

 ern States.* Here permanent winter roosts are found, to 

 which the crows come nightly for many miles around and 

 from which they go out early each morning. It is estimated 

 that several of these roosts contain from fifty thousand to 

 three hundred thousand crows each. This gregarious roost- 

 ing habit is observed also among the crows of jNlassachusetts, 

 yet the writer has never seen in this Commonwealth such 



* Bulletin No. 6, United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Ornithol- 

 ogy and Mammalogy, " Common Crow of tlie United States," pages 11, 12. 



