A WINTER CROW ROOST i 37 



land. The evergreen trees are largely European 

 species — Scotch and Austrian pines with spruces 

 and firs. There is a large grove of European 

 larches, and there are patches of willows, maples, 

 ashes, buttonwoods, and other deciduous trees. 



In the short winter afternoons the crows begin 

 their flight to the roost long before sunset. By 

 three o'clock or even as early as one o'clock, es- 

 pecially in dark weather and in the short Decem- 

 ber days, this bed-time journey begins, while in 

 the latter part of February the flight is postponed 

 until half past four or a quarter of five. From 

 every direction but the seaward side the crows 

 direct their course towards the roost. Three 

 main streams of flight can be distinguished : one 

 from the north, from the region of the Ipswich 

 and Rowley "hundreds" — the great stretches of 

 salt marsh that extend to the Merrimac River — 

 a second from the west and a third — apparent!)' 

 the largest of all, broad and deep and highly con- 

 centrated — from the south. 



It was the last of these rivers that on a coUi 

 December afternoon with a biting wind from tin- 

 northwest I first studied in compan}' w'l^h Mr. 



