Extracts from Diary of Otto Widmann 17 



THE CROWS' WINTER ROOST AT ST. LOUIS.* 



St. Louis has many sights worth seeing, all more or 

 less known and appreciated, but one of its greatest 

 natural curiosities, the big roost of wintering Crows on 

 Arsenal Island, where thousands and perhaps a hundred 

 thousand Crows congregate, is never mentioned. 



The Crow is a common summer resident in this part of 

 the country. Every grove has its pair nesting, and 

 around their favorite feeding grounds a dozen Crows 

 may be seen together any day during the breeding sea- 

 son. To these places the young resort when able to fly, 

 and parties of thirty or so are nothing unusual in sum- 

 mer, oftener or sooner heard than seen, especially when 

 the presence of a Hawk excites their hatred. 



In the neighborhood of their winter roost they are not 

 seen in any unusual numbers before the middle of Sep- 

 tember. The river front of St. Louis is sixteen miles 

 long. The center of the city with the courthouse is about 

 half way of this long line. Four miles south of the court- 

 house, down the river, is the head of an island called 

 Arsenal Island (formerly Smallpox Island, because dur- 

 ing the Civil War the smallpox hospital was situated on 

 this island). 



At that time the head of the island was opposite the 

 St. Louis Arsenal, and for that reason the name Arsenal 

 Island was given. At the present day the island begins 

 one mile south of the Arsenal, having been washed off 

 continually at its head until about five years ago, when 

 it was fixed by strong embankments erected by the gov- 

 ernment. At the same time, in order to force the cur- 

 rent to the Missouri side, the island was connected with 

 the Illinois shore by a dam which obstructed the flow of 

 water so much that the old channel east of the island 

 is nearly dry now in summer, and willows begin to grow 



•Reprinted from the "Ornithologist and Otologist," Feb., 1888. 

 Vol. XIII, No. 2. 



