52 Birds of Lewiston-Auburn 



FAMILY CROW, JAYS, ETC. 



91. (488) AMERICAN CROW 



Crows are seen mostly from February till late fall. 

 Probably the greater number of those we see during the 

 winter fly inland from the coast for the day. When they 

 become more numerous and noisy in February we are 

 reminded that spring approaches. It makes long flights 

 to rookeries. In the Bulletin of the United States 

 National Museum Coues speaks of the flight beginning 

 early in the afternoon and continuing till dark of each 

 day. They return at early dawn. 



Coues also says : "Such 'roosts' are well known in 

 various parts of the Eastern United States ; but the 

 impulse whose potency forces such long daily journeys 

 upon the birds is a mystery as yet unexplained." Bird 

 observers in this vicinity have witnessed these flights 

 toward the last of August and continuing into late 

 autumn. 



92. (477) BLUE JAY 



A resident all the year. More common in autumn 

 and winter. It is a bird of the woodland but occasionally 

 one is seen near David's Mountain and Riverside Ceme- 

 tery. In September its call, jay, jay, is a harbinger of 

 autumn. In winter the blue and white plumage is a sight 

 so cheerful over the landscape that we can forgive bad 

 habits. It utters such a variety of different noises that a 

 frequenter of the woods once said, if a strange note is 

 heard, in nine cases out of ten it is a Blue Jay. 



FAMILY LARKS 



93. (474b) PRAIRIE HORNED LARK 



A summer resident ; not very common. Our earliest 

 spring migrant arriving about the middle of February or 



