152 BEACH GRASS 



by each crow must be large. But the crow, like 

 the Indian and all creatures of nature, is well 

 able to take care of himself and to utilize every 

 possible source of food supply. Neither a feast 

 nor a famine disturbs his equanimity, unless the 

 latter is too prolonged. 



Although most of the birds appeared to be 

 endowed with plenty of strength and energy, 

 one at least on February 22 seemed to be suffer- 

 ing from the hard times. This crow alighted in 

 a feeble tottering manner on a post within forty 

 yards of me, and balanced himself with difficulty. 

 I walked to within thirty 3^ards of him when he 

 wearily took wing only to alight in a similar 

 way on another post a couple of hundred yards 

 away. When flushed from this he managed to 

 fly a few rods to the roosting grove. 



Two other crows previous to this incident were 

 found dead near the roost. Both were normal 

 in size as shown by measurements,^ and neither 



1 In "The birds of Essex County," p. 243, 1 recorded the ex- 

 amination of a crow found dead early in March, 1904. "The 

 body was greatly emaciated, the intestines nearly empty, and 

 the stomach contained only a husk of oats and a piece of 

 coal ashes. There was no evidence of disease. The bird 



