SA^D DUNES AND SALT MAESHES 



occasions only do they hop. Their toe-marks 

 show knobby protuberances, as if they suf- 

 fered from the gout. As they rise into the 

 air, their wing-marks are sometimes im- 

 printed on the sand, and I have seen places 

 on the snow where they have slipped in walk- 

 ing and spread out one wing to save them- 

 selves. 



Crows give an easy clew to their feeding 

 habits, as they have a custom of ejecting from 

 their mouths pellets of partially digested food. 

 These pellets are plentifully distributed in the 

 dunes, especially in certain localities where 

 the birds roost. They are one or two inches 

 long, tapering at the ends, and a half to three- 

 quarters of an inch thick. In summer these 

 pellets soon fall to pieces, but in freezing 

 weather they retain their shape. Their most 

 common constituents, by which they may be 

 recognized at a glance, are bayberry or wax 

 myrtle seeds. A few of these seeds are ejected 

 with the waxy coat still intact, but most of 

 them are entirely denuded of it. Cranberries, 

 whole and in fragments, the red furry seeds 

 of the smnach, the seeds of the poison sumach, 

 of grapes and of the bitter-sweet are also com- 

 mon. I have found pellets that were made up 



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