THE FISH-CROW. 95 



him as he approaches, and even enters his garden to feed on his best fruits. 

 Hundreds are seen to alight on the trees near the towns and cities placed 

 along our southern shores; many fly over or walk about the pools and rivers, 

 and all pursue their avocations without apprehension of danger from the 

 lords of the land. This sense of security arises entirely from the circum- 

 stance that man generally believes the bird to be perfectly inoffensive, and 

 glad am I, reader, that it at least bears so good a character. 



The Fish-Crow is almost entirely confined to the maritime districts of the 

 Southern States, and there it abounds at all seasons. Those which migrate 

 proceed to the eastward about the beginning of April, and some go as far as 

 New York, where they are, however, rather rare. They ascend the Delaware 

 river in Pennsylvania, nearly up to its source, and some breed in the State 

 of Jersey every year; but all return to the south at the approach of cold 

 weather. Some go up the Mississippi for four or five hundred miles, but I 

 have not seen any higher on that stream, which they generally leave to 

 return to the vicinity of the sea-shore in the winter season. In East 

 Florida, where they abound, I found them breeding in February, in South 

 Carolina about the 20th of March, and in New Jersey a month later. 



While on the St. John's river in Florida, during the month of February, I 

 saw flocks of Fish-Crows, consisting of several hundred individuals, sailing 

 high in the air, somewhat in the manner of the Raven, when the whole 

 appeared paired, for I could see that, although in such numbers, each pair 

 moved distinctly apart. These aerial excursions would last for hours, during 

 the calm of a fine morning, after which the whole would descend toward the 

 water, to pursue their more usual avocations in all the sociability of their 

 nature. When their fishing, which lasted about half an hour, was over, they 

 would alight in flocks on the live oaks and other trees near the shores, and 

 there keep up their gabbling, pluming themselves for hours. Once more 

 they returned to their fishing-grounds, where they remained until about an 

 hour from sunset, when they made for the interior, often proceeding thirty 

 or forty miles, to roost together in the trees of the loblolly pine. They 

 scarcely utter a single note during this retreat, but no sooner does the first 

 glimmer of day appear than the woods around echo to their matin cries of 

 gratulation. They depart at once for the sea-shores, noisy, lively, and 

 happy. Now you find them busily engaged over the bays and rivers, the 

 wharfs, and even the salt-ponds and marshes, searching for small fry, which 

 they easily secure with their claws as they pass close over the water, and 

 picking up any sort of garbage suited to their appetite. 



Like the Raven, the Common Crow, or the Grakle, the Fish-Crow robs 

 other birds of their eggs and young. I observed this particularly on the 

 Florida Keys, where they even dared to plunder the nests of the Cormorant 



