338 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



hour without noticing any diminution in its bulk. And what a 

 lake it made ! When a gun was fired the Crows rose above the 

 woods like a great black cloud, and when they settled again every 

 available branch of the thousands of trees was utilized to afford 

 them resting-places. 



Mr. Ehodes says : " The aerial evolutions of this descending 

 multitude, coupled with the surging clamour of those which have 

 already settled as successive reinforcements appear, and which at 

 a distance greatly resembles the far-away roar of the sea, may 

 justly awaken emotions of sublimity in the spectator." 



The Crow is ever a wary bird, and even after having perched 

 for the night is easily disturbed. If one walks through the woods 

 where the Crows are roosting, the nearest ones rise with the 

 " caw" of alarm, and fly over the trees to the farther edge of the 

 main body. If one walks steadily towards them they keep as 

 steadily giving way in orderly wave-like retreat. I have thus 

 followed this colony from copse to copse through the whole 

 neighbourhood of its roost. If while walking one but stops, 

 with no other movement, the Crows immediately suspect some 

 treachery, and there is a noisy stampede of all within danger. 

 Very probably they have learned that a gunner always halts when 

 about to shoot. 



On the morning of February 19th I saw the colony disperse 

 for the day under peculiarly favourable circumstances. The sky 

 was perfectly clear and well lighted by the stars and the moon in 

 its first quarter. We reached the field within one hundred yards 

 of the roost about half-past three o'clock in the morning. 

 Because of some noise in walking over the frozen furrows, a 

 few of the nearest Crows took alarm at our approach, and flew 

 back a few rods into the woods ; but this without the slightest 

 noise, save the cracking of some branches or the whirring of 

 their wings in the retreat. For over two hours all at the roost 

 was silent as a graveyard, except that every now and then some 

 restless individual, a sentinel perhaps, would utter a most peculiar 

 croak, just like the louder note of a bull-frog. 



But just an hour before sunrise, when the east was becoming 

 faintly lighted, the Crows suddenly commenced awakening, and 

 at the same time commenced " cawing." The few who led the 

 measure were within one or two minutes joined by the full chorus 

 of 300,000 or more voices, each apparently striving to be heard 



