128 SINGING BIRDS. 



away by blows. In turn, however, the Crow finds enemies too 

 powerful for him to conquer, such as the Kite and Eagle Owl, 

 who occasionally make a meal of this carrion bird, — a voracious 

 propensity which the Virginian Owl also sometimes exhibits 

 towards the same species. Wherever the Crow appears, the 

 smaller birds take the alarm, and vent upon him their just 

 suspicions and reproaches. But it is only the redoubtable 

 King Bird who has courage for the attack, beginning the onset 

 by pursuing and diving on his back from above, and haras- 

 sing the plunderer with such violence that he is generally glad 

 to get out of the way and forego his piratical visit ; in short, a 

 single pair of these courageous and quarrelsome birds are suf- 

 ficient to clear the Crows from an extensive cornfield. 



The most serious mischief of which the Crow is guilty 

 is that of pillaging the maize-field. He commences at the 

 planting-time by picking up and rooting out the sprouting 

 grain, and in the autumn, when it becomes ripe, whole flocks, 

 now assembled at their roosting-places, blacken the neighboring 

 fields as soon as they get into motion, and do extensive dam- 

 age at every visit, from the excessive numbers who now rush to 

 the inviting feast. 



Their rendezvous or roosting-places are the resort in au- 

 tumn of all the Crows and their families for many miles round. 

 The blackening silent train continues to arrive for more than 

 an hour before sunset, and some still straggle on until dark. 

 They never arrive in dense flocks, but always in long lines, 

 each falling into the file as he sees opportunity. This gregarious 

 inclination is common to many birds in the autumn which 

 associate only in pairs in the summer. The forests and groves, 

 stripped of their agreeable and protecting verdure, seem no 

 longer safe and pleasant to the feathered nations. Exposed to 

 the birds of prey, which daily augment in numbers ; penetrated 

 by the chiUing blasts, which sweep without control through the 

 naked branches, — the birds, now impelled by an overruling 

 instinct, seek in congregated numbers some general, safer, and 

 more commodious retreat. Islands of reeds, dark and solitary 

 thickets, and neglected swamps, are the situations chosen for 



