138 BEACH GRASS 



Francis H. Allen. It was an impressive sight. 

 About three o'clock the crows began to appear, 

 singly and in small groups, beating their way in 

 the teeth of the wind towards the north. In fly- 

 ing over the estuary of the Castle Neck River they 

 kept close to the water as if to take advantage 

 of the lee behind the waves; over the land they 

 clung to the contour of the dunes. As we walked 

 among these waves of sand, the crows often ap- 

 peared suddenly and unexpectedly over the 

 crest of a dune within a few feet of us. Silently 

 for the most part, except for the silken rustle 

 of their wings, they flew over in increasing num- 

 bers until it was evident that they were to be 

 counted, not by hundreds, but by thousands. 

 Many of them alighted on the dunes to the south 

 of the roosting place; sand, bushes and stunted 

 bare trees were alike black with them. Others 

 assembled on the bare hillside to the east. About 

 sunset a great tumult of corvine voices issued 

 from the multitude — a loud cawing with oc- 

 casional wailing notes — and a black cloud rose 

 into the air and settled in the branches of the 

 bare trees to the west of the roost. From here 



