CROW ROOSTS IN NEW JERSEY. 15 



wretches will swallow bits of leather, rope, rags, in short anything 

 that appears to promise the slightest relief. Multitudes belonging 

 to the Bristol roost perished during the winter of 1828-29 from this 

 cause. All the water courses were solidly frozen, and it was distressing 

 to observe these starvelings every morning winging their weary way 

 toward the shores of the sea in hopes of food, and again to see them 

 toiling homeward in the afternoon, apparently scarce able to fly." 



In 1886 Mr. Samuel X. Ehoads contributed to the American Natu- 

 ralist a valuable paper entitled 'Crow Eoosts and Roosting Crows.' In 

 most respects this paper gives a good idea of the character of these 

 great roosts and their occupants. We must dissent, however, from Mr. 

 Ehoads' opinion that "in winter a radial sweep of 100 miles, described 

 from the city of Philadelphia and touching the cities of New York, 

 Harrisburg, and Baltimore, will include in the daytime in its western 

 semicircle fully two-thirds of the Crows (C. americartus) inhabiting 

 North America, and at night an equal proportion in its eastern half." 

 That the region described would contain more Crows than any similar 

 area in North America is doubtless true, but it is now well known that 

 this area by no means includes all the Crows reared in the Atlantic 

 States, and probably none of those reared west of the Alleghanies. 



Mr. Ehoads' account of the gathering of Crows at their roosts 

 toward night and the manner of dispersal in the morning is quoted in 

 full. He says: "A visit to one of the numerous roosts of New Jersey 

 would repay anyone interested in nature and reward the curiosity of 

 the most casual observer. 



"The course adopted in assembling to and departing from the chosen 

 spot is uniform everywhere. About an hour before sunset stragglers 

 begin to appear, reconnoitering, as it were, to see that the coast is clear, 

 and returning whence they came, as if to inform the main body of the 

 result. In the course of half an hour the flocks begin to arrive in 

 broken lines and detachments from all quarters, and, if the evening be 

 calm, their earthward descent from a height of many hundred feet 

 exhibits aerial prowess surpassing in daring elegance those of any 

 other land bird with which I am acquainted. It is their invariable cus- 

 tom to descend to some spot in the neighborhood, from one-half to a 

 quarter of a mile from the roost, preliminary to assembling there for 

 the night's repose. This may be either upon the adjoining fields or on 

 woodland tracts near by. Such preliminary gatherings, as Godman 

 observes, seem to have a definite object — either for toilet or gastro- 

 nomic purposes — a time, also, if we may judge by their clamor, of 

 general conversation, some rejoicing, some repining, in their varied 

 experience of the last twelve hours. 



"The aerial evolutions of this descending multitude, coupled with 

 the surging clamor of those which have already settled as succes- 

 sive re-enforcements appear, and which at a distance greatly resemble 

 the far-away roar of the sea, may justly awaken emotions of sublimity 

 in the spectator. To descend almost perpendicularly from a height of 



