94 



IHE OOLOGIST. 



embodiment of a thousand divine concep- 

 tions; tlie strata of the rocks are but the 

 leaves of His history of the vrorld. The 

 more clearly we can comprehend His 

 works, the more closely we shall approach 

 to an understanding of his thoughts and 

 the clearer idea we shall have of His 

 thoughts, and the clearer idea we shall 

 have of His greatness and goodness. 



I have been considering the value of 

 natural history study as a means. It is not 

 worth while as an end ? When we see such 

 men as Linnaeus, Cuvier, Gray, Darwin, 

 Agassiz, Audubon and Baird. giving their 

 whole lives to a common pursuit, we feel 

 that it must be a worthy one. The grand 

 achievements of the U. S. Fish Commis- 

 sion are one result of Prof. Bairds labors 

 in natural history. Millions yet unborn 

 will receive and enjoy the fruitage of those 

 labors. 



From the ranks of the A. A. will come 

 our future scientists. From among its 

 members will come men and women who 

 will investigate the habits of destructive 

 insects. They will tell us when and how 

 to attack them; what remedies to use; and 

 of what natural agencies to take advantage, 

 in order to suppress or exterminate them. 

 They will introduce and successfully culti- 

 vate new and useful plants; they will 

 improve the quality of our domestic cattle; 

 they will encourage the natural allies of 

 mankind, and will in turn profit by the 

 kindly otRces of these friends. The vast 

 natural resources of our country will be 

 more fully developed, and agriculture and 

 business will prosper. 



Success to the A. A. ! 



C. H. Wilder, 



Bristol Center, N. Y. 



Crow Roosts of New Jersey. 



New Jersey can truly be called the home 

 of the crows, the dense pine woods afford 

 them shelter from the piercing winter 

 winds and snows, and the marshes along 

 the creeks and bays afford them many a 

 choice morsel that could not be found 

 farther inland. The latter part of fall they 



begin to migrate from several of the ad- 

 joining states, congregating in small flocks 

 or divisions. A crow roost can easily be 

 located by observing, the direction of their 

 flight, in the evening, about 4 o'clock p. m., 

 they start in irregular detachments in a 

 straight line for their roost, but about five 

 and just before dusk a continual string- 

 reaching for miles may be seen. As a gen- 

 eral thing, a crow roost is situated on or 

 near the banks . of a creek or stream. Out 

 of the five roosts that I have known all 

 were thus located. 



It is an amusing and interesting spectacle 

 to watch them arrive at their roost; they 

 pour in from every point of the compass 

 and seem to have beaten tracks, straglers 

 joining in with the rest as they fly by. I 

 think each division or flock have their own 

 feeding grounds, from which they return 

 to mingle with their neighbors at night and 

 tell of their adventures, luck, etc. , at least, 

 as each detachment arrives they greet each 

 other with a perfect babel of crow-language. 

 In one detachment of a roost that I am the 

 most acquainted with, on the Rancocas 

 River, there was one crow that had some- 

 thing the matter with his breathing appa- 

 ratus (probably heaves), it could be heard 

 as far as seen, and made a noise resembling 

 the braying of a donkey at a distance, he 

 was called the "donkey" by several fellows 

 that used to amuse themselves by shooting 

 them as they flew over the road; this crow 

 was seen and heard every day for weeks, 

 thus proving that each flock of a roost had 

 their own feeding grounds. 



I well remember my first acquaintance 

 with a crow roost; another young man and 

 myself were taking a canoe trip, gunning 

 for muskrats by moonlight; bnt as they 

 proved scarce we concluded to visit a pine 

 bough hut we built the year before to camp 

 ia; we found it, but not as we left it, the 

 winter winds and snows had completely 

 wrecked it. I commenced to laugh, when 

 all at once a noise as loud and more varied 

 than thunder was heard all over the woods, 

 scared! well, I guess we were, our "hair 

 stood on end" for the length of a second; 

 but we soon found the cause of the hub- 



