A WINTER CROW ROOST 151 



supply of food in the form of mollusks and 

 crutaceans as well as in dead iish and other car- 

 rion brought up by the tides. In fact, it is these 

 marshes and beaches that make such a great con- 

 course of crows possible; — the inland country 

 is able to support but a mere fraction of sucli a 

 multitude. If the winter is a prolonged and 

 severe one, the food problem becomes more and 

 more difficult. All the bayberry bushes that are 

 not covered with snow are stripped of their 

 berries; the red flames of the sumach are battered 

 and reduced to a spindling central stalk with but 

 a few red furry seeds remaining. The upper 

 beach, the source of so much food supply in dead 

 fish, crabs and mollusks, is encased in ice and 

 built up into a wall; the marshes with their 

 wealth of small snails and mussels is sealed sev- 

 eral feet deep in tumbled cakes of ice, and the 

 tide rises and falls in the creeks and larger estu- 

 aries under an unbroken icy mantle. All the 

 uplands are buried in snow. It is difficult to 

 conceive how this multitude of red-blooded, 

 active birds can glean enough food umler these 

 conditions. The number of food calories needed 



