772 The Sparrow-like Birds 



In the dusk of evening the trees on a whole hillside appeared like a dark bank, 

 so vast was the rookery. We visited the resort often after dark to hear the 

 varied sounds that ever arose from the restless, scolding birds, whose voices 

 could easily be heard a mile distant. A whistle or shout was cause for alarm, 

 and the entire flock would rise up like a dark cloud, and the beating of wings 

 sounded like a strong wind. Sometimes they would fly a mile off, and, return- 

 ing, circle about and begin settling much as Chimney Swallows do, striking each 

 other and the branches with their wings ; the din of quarreling for places, chang- 

 ing, and flying up and down was terrible; some cawed loudly, others muffled 

 their tones ; some imitated the cry of a child, and some the squawk of a chicken ; 

 but the combined effect was a vast, weird wail that reverberated through the 

 forest and died away on the night winds." 



Such a rookery existed in the woods near Arlington, Virginia, opposite the 

 city of Washington, D.C., the members of which ranged during the day over the 

 states of Maryland and Virginia in a radius of perhaps twenty or thirty miles, 

 returning in straggling flocks in late afternoon. A strange fatality has overtaken 

 this colony on several occasions, this being an epidemic of roup, and during some 

 excessively cold weather the cornea of the birds' eyes was frozen, rendering them 

 blind and practically helpless, and they starved to death by thousands. The 

 Crow, like most of his kind, is strictly omnivorous. During the winter they 

 feed largely on Indian corn left in the fields, berries, seeds, and nuts then obtain- 

 able, as well as offal and the flotsam and jetsam cast up along the shores of 

 the salt water. In spring they do much damage by pulling up sprouting corn, 

 but they also feed on insects of all kinds, grubs, snails, small reptiles, and mam- 

 mals, and are very destructive to the eggs and young of small birds. Altogether 

 it is questionable if the damage they accomplish is offset by their good deeds 

 in destroying insects and other pests. They prefer rather open woodland and 

 river bottoms for nesting sites, placing the large, open, deeply cup-shaped nest 

 in trees at varying heights from the ground. The handsome eggs, generally 

 four or five in number, are usually a malachite or olive green with irregularly 

 shaped blotches and spots of different shades of brown and gray ; a single brood 

 is reared in a season. 



Fish Crow. Sometimes found associating with the Common Crow, espe- 

 cially in winter, is the Fish Crow (C. ossifragus), which is distinguished at once 

 by its smaller size, being smaller than the smallest race of the former, more 

 glossy plumage, and above all by its very different notes, having a hoarse, 

 guttural cah, cah, instead of the clear caw of the brachyrhynchos. It is distributed 

 principally along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts as far north as Massachusetts, 

 occurring mainly in the vicinity of tide water, but also about streams and lakes 

 at some distance inland. It takes its name from its fondness for shellfish, 

 crabs, and such aquatic life as is found along coasts and shores, but it also feeds 

 on berries and grain and to a great extent on eggs and nestling birds, in fact, 

 as Mr. Ridgway says: "Next to the Crow Blackbird I consider the Fish Crow 

 the worst scourge our smaller birds have to contend with in the Class Aves. I 

 doubt if even the domestic cat destroys so much bird life." Its habits are 



