WINTER ROOSTING COLONIES OF CROWS. 295 



year there were estimated to be 40,000 or 50,000, but this year 

 probably twice as many. The main colony is of two or three 

 bodies within the area of a square mile. The roosts are not 

 exactly continuous, but pretty close together, according to the 

 clumps of trees. The Fish Crows are about one to five in 

 proportion to the Common Crows. 



In Baird, Brewer, and Bidgeway is an account of one of these 

 colonies of Crows, possibly journeying northward, " from the lips 

 of the late John Cassin, an ornithologist hardly less remarkable 

 for his outdoor observations than for his researches in the closet." 

 On a Sunday morning in April, 1868, when Philadelphia was 

 enveloped in an impenetrable fog, a body of Crows numbering 

 hundreds of thousands alighted in Independence Square. "As 

 if aware of their close proximity to danger, the whole assembly 

 was quiet, orderly, and silent. A few birds, evidently acting as 

 leaders, moved noiselessly back and forth through their ranks, as 

 if giving tacit signals." Then scouts departed to explore, and 

 upon their return the leaders again went cautiously through the 

 ranks. But tbey did not move until another exploring party had 

 made its report, apparently more favourable, then " the whole of 

 this immense congregation rose slowly and silently, preceded by 

 their scouts, and, moving off in a westerly direction, were soon 

 lost to view." 



The Fish Crow (C. ossifragus, Wils.) is confined to the Atlantic 

 seaboard from Long Island to Florida, and the Common 

 Crow (C. amcricanus, Aud.) is most numerous east of the Bocky 

 Mountains. W. W. Cooke and Otto Widemann say that the 

 Common Crow is a resident of St. Louis and vicinity, roosting by 

 thousands in winter among the willows opposite St. Louis. 



In a note in the ' American Naturalist ' for December, 1887, 

 Mr. W. Edgar Taylor signalises a roost " covering perhaps four 

 or five acres, on Hog-thief Island, in the Missouri Biver, about 

 six miles above Peru, Neb." " Two other good-sized roosts are 

 known, one ten miles north, and the other on an island eight 

 miles south of Hog-thief Island." Mr. N. S. Goss, author of 

 ' Kansas Birds,' is quoted as saying that several large roosts 

 exist in Kansas. 



Mr. Taylor says the Hog-thief Island roost has been occupied 

 for at least twenty-five years. " The Crows assemble about the 

 1st of October, and disperse about the 1st of May. About 



