ee 
CROW. 321 
Towards the close of summer, the parent Crows, with ther new 
families, forsaking their solitary lodgings, collect together, as if by 
previous agreement, when evening approaches. About an hour before 
sunset, they are first observed, flying, somewhat in Indian file, in one 
direction, at a short height above the tops of the trees, silent and 
steady, keeping the general curvature of the ground, continuing to 
pass sometimes till after sunset, so that the whole line of march would 
extend for many miles. This circumstance, -so familiar ‘and _pic- 
turesque, has not been overlooked by the poets, in their descriptions 
of a rural evening. Burns, ina single line, has finely sketched it: — 
The blackening trains of Crows to their repose. 
The most noted Crow roost with which I am acquainted is near 
Newcastle, on an island in the Delaware. It is there known by the 
name of the Pea Patch, and is a low, flat, alluvial spot, of a few acres, 
elevated but a little above high water mark, and covered with a thick 
growth of reeds. This appears to be the grand rendezvous, or head- 
quarters, of the greater part of the Crows within forty or fifty miles of 
the spot. It 1s entirely destitute of trees, the Crows alighting and 
nestling among the reeds, which by these means are broken down and 
matted together. The noise created by those multitudes, both in 
their evening assembly and reascension in the morning, and the depre- 
dations they commit in the immediate neighborhood of this great 
resort, are almost incredible. Whole fields of corn are sometimes 
laid waste by thousands alighting on it at once, with appetites whetted 
by the fast of the preceding night ; and the utmost vigilance is tinavail- 
ing to prevent, at least, a partial destruction of this their favorite 
grain. Like the stragglers of an immense, undisciplined, and rapa- 
cious army, they spread themselves over the. fields, to plunder and 
destroy wherever they alight. It is here that thé character of the 
Crow is universally execrated ; and to say to the man who has lost his 
crop of corn by these birds, that Crows are exceedingly useful for 
destroying vermin, would be as consolatory as to tell him who had 
just lost his house and furniture by the flames, that fires are excellent 
for destroying bugs. ; 
: “ 
tory ; but I had always understood, that the depredations of the Owl were confined 
to the smaller birds, and animals of the lesser kind, such as mice, young rabbits, &e. 
and that he obtained his prey rather by fraud and stratagem, than by open rapacity 
and violence. I was the more confirmed in this belief, from the recollection of a 
passage in Macbeth, which now forcibly recurred to my memory.— The courtiers 
of King Duncan are recounting to each other the various prodigies that preceded 
his death, and one of them relates to his wondering auditors, that 
‘ 
" An Eagle, towering in his pride of place, 
Was by a mousing Owl, hawked at and killed. 
But to resume my relation: That the Owl was the murderer of the unfortunate 
Crow, there could be no doubt. No other bird of prey was in sight; I had not 
fired my gun since I entered the wood; nor heard any one else shoot: besides, the 
unequivocal situation in which I found the parties, would have been sufficient be- 
fore any ‘ twelve good men and true,’ or a jury of* Crows, to have convicted him 
of his guilt. It is proper to add, that I avenged the death of the hapless Crow, by 
2 well-aimed shot at the felonious robber, that extended him breathless on the 
ground.” 
