240 NOTES ON NEW ENGLAND BIRDS 



Dec. 31, 1859. Crows yesterday flitted silently, if not 

 ominously, over the street, just after the snow had fallen, 

 as if men, being further within, were just as far off as 

 usual. This is a phenomenon of both cold weather and 

 snowy. You hear nothing ; you merely see these black 

 apparitions, though they come near enough to look down 

 your chimney and scent the boiling pot, and pass be- 

 tween the house and barn. 



Jan. 30, 1860. There are certain sounds invariably 

 heard in warm and thawing days in winter, such as 

 the crowing of cocks, the cawing of crows, and some- 

 times the gobbling of turkeys. The crow, flying high, 

 touches the tympanum of the sky for us, and reveals 

 the tone of it. What does it avail to look at a ther- 

 mometer or barometer compared with listening to his 

 note ? He informs me that Nature is in the tenderest 

 mood possible, and I hear the very flutterings of her 

 heart. 



Crows have singular wild and suspicious ways. You 

 will see a couple flying high, as if about their business, 

 but lo, they turn and circle and caw over your head again 

 and again for a mile ; and this is their business, — as if a 

 mile and an afternoon were nothing for them to throw 

 away. This even in winter, when they have no nests to be 

 anxious about. But it is affecting to hear them cawing 

 about their ancient seat (as at F. Wheeler's wood) which 

 the choppers are laying low. 



March 2, 1860. See thirty or more crows come flying in 

 the usual irregular zigzag manner in the strong wind, 

 from over M. Miles's, going northeast, — the first migra- 

 tion of them, — without cawing. 



