46 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis 



the sand, and when snow was on the ground, on the snow. 

 After they had left in the morning one could see every 

 spot where a Crow had spent the night ; a round depres- 

 sion of about six inches in diameter, flanked on the lee 

 side by a few droppings of excreta and on the wind side 

 by a few holes in the snow made by the bird 's bill. When 

 Illinois began paying a bounty for Crows their number 

 dwindled down rapidly, and in the past ten years there 

 were no crows flying over the city and one has to go to 

 the Missouri River region to see flocks of crows in winter. 



The most interesting winter roost in the vicinity of St. 

 ix)uis is that of the Red-winged Blackbird, a place where 

 thousands of them come together every evening to spend 

 the night in company, while they scatter far and wide in 

 search of food during the day. The roost is on sandy 

 land between the Creve Coeur Lake and St. Charles 

 bridge. The place is overgrown with scouring rushes, 

 Equisetum hiemale, which during tlie summer reaches a 

 height of two to three feet. In the fall the stems break, 

 and in leaning over in all directions form a matted mass 

 under which small animals find the best possible resting 

 place in winter. The ground being sandy absorbs rain 

 quickly, snow remains mostly on the matted mass and a 

 freezing rain makes thd shelter even more secure. 



Under these rushes the Redwings spend the coldest, 

 windiest nights in perfect comfort, and it is only lack of 

 food that reduces their number when deep snow covers 

 their feeding grounds, fields and pastures, where animals 

 are kept or cornfields where corn is left in shocks or on 

 the stem. During the day not a bird is seen about this 

 roost, the birds crossing over the river to spread over 

 St. Charles and neighboring counties, but in the evening 

 before sunset they come in long streams, pouring into the 

 adjoining timber before going to the rushes, which is 

 done only when dusk is settling over the region. Most 

 of these Redwings belong to that subspecies or geo- 

 graphic race that breeds in the United States, but in the 



