334 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



WINTER ROOSTING COLONIES OF CROWS. 

 By C. L. Edwards. 

 (Concluded from p. 297.) 



In the following study of the colonies at Arbutus and Avon- 

 dale, Md., I have attempted to describe the life of the colony 

 during the twenty-four hours of day and night. The facts given 

 are from observations made by the writer during the winters of 

 1886-87 and 1887-88. 



A. — The Arbutus Roost. 



Seven miles south-west from Baltimore, a half-mile south- 

 east of Arbutus station on tbe Baltimore and Potomac Railway, 

 is a tract of land of about a half-mile square on which are several 

 patches of woods which furnish the roosting-ground and its 

 neighbourhood for a winter colony of Crows. It seems from tbe 

 testimony of tbe owners of this land that the Crows have roosted 

 there for about twelve years, having previously occupied a piece of 

 woods a half-mile or more to the westward, which they abandoned 

 when house-building and wood-cutting by the inhabitants made 

 it undesirable. Although this ground has been for some years 

 the head-quarters of the colony, yet it has during that time made 

 temporal'}' changes to places within a radius of one or two miles. 

 Within this more extended limit, in the memory of " the oldest 

 inhabitant," which individual has lived near Arbutus for over half 

 a century, the Crows have come to make their winter colony. 



Dr. Godman says, " Such roosts are known to be thus occupied 

 for years, beyond the memory of individuals ; and I know of one 

 or two which the oldest residents in the quarter state to have been 

 known to their grandfathers, and probably bad been resorted to 

 by the Crows during several ages previous." 



There is in the first-mentioned half-mile tract one particular 

 piece of woods containing about fifteen acres of ground which 

 seems to be the favourite roosting-place of the Crows, and from 

 which, according as their numbers increase, they overflow into the 

 surrounding woods and bushes. The trees are mostly of black oak, 

 with some chestnut, white oak, poplar, and other common forest 

 species, all of a decidedly "scrubby" growth, not being on an 

 average more than twenty-five or thirty feet high. The woods 

 are situated in a sort of valley quite surrounded with hills which 



