THE VULTURE AND THE HAWK. 198 
with. The roosting places of these birds are 
singularly interesting. “They choose,” Audu- 
bon tells us, “the margin of ponds, lakes, and 
rivers, upon the rank weeds.” 
The observations of other travellers have, 
‘however, met with them in very different situ- 
itions. Among the hills of the Green River 
.ountry, Kentucky, they may be seen streaming 
ce erhead in great numbers. An unusual noise 
is shen produced in the air. On advancing in 
th. direction with them, the sound grows in 
vol.me, till it bursts forth in a commingled 
roar of notes and beating wings, which is ab- 
solut.ly deafening. All around, for the space 
of hetf an acre, the cracking trees bend be- 
neath multiplied thousands of crows, shifting 
and flapping with unceasing movement, every 
one screaming his vociferous “caw” in bois- 
terous emulation. Resembling a pigéon roost 
very closely, it differs in this respect, that by the 
time dark sets in, the crows are all quiet, sitting 
black and still, in heaped masses, as they are 
defined against the dim sky. In the pigeon 
roost, on the contrary, the heavy thundering of 
myriad wings rolls on without ceasing, till just 
before day.* 
The vulture, with several species of the hawk, 
* North American Review. 
it. x 
