106 CROW. 



with crackling, splintering, spurting semi-musical 

 sounds which are like pepper and salt to the ear." 

 (Burroughs.) 



Crackles spend much time on the ground, hunting 

 worms, grasshoppers and other insects, and as they 

 walk about the city parks, or in the country over 

 greening meadows and new-ploughed fields, they are 

 a picturesque part of the spring landscape. 



They nest in small colonies, generally building in 

 the tops of trees. The nest is bulky and deep, and 

 the eggs, 4 to 6, are dingy white, scrawled and spotted 

 with brown. 



American Crow: Corvus 



amencamis. 



Length 19 inches. 



Black all over, with steel-blue and purplish reflections. 



Resident (abundant) all the year. 



Residents of Washington are familiar with the sight 

 of a seemingly endless procession of Crows straggling 

 across the sunset sky to the famous roost at Arlington. 

 In the earliest morning hours the same birds might 

 have been seen passing eastward to their feeding 

 grounds on the Chesapeake shores. Why Crows 

 should take this long journey twice a day, often 

 against strong winds and winter storms, is a mystery; 

 we wonder that they do not choose a roosting place 

 nearer their food supply. 



The Arlington roost covers from twelve to fifteen 

 acres, and at times as many as one hundred and fifty 

 thousand Crows have gathered there nightly, but 

 since the winter of '94-'95 the number has been much 

 reduced. The Agricultural Department publishes a 

 bulletin, " The Common Crow " which is full of in- 



