THE CROW, BIRD CITIZEN OF EVERY LAND 



325 



Photograph by William L,. Finley and H. T. Bohlman 



A MOTHER CROW AT THE NEST EDGE 



The nestling crow is one of the most voracious members of the animal kingdom. Most 

 of its "growing pains" are in its stomach, and one baby bird consumes from eight to ten 

 ounces of food every day (see chart, page 335). 



In late January these nightly congre- 

 gations reach their greatest size, and by 

 the first of March the birds are well on 

 the northward journey to their breeding 

 grounds. 



REMARKABEE CROW CITIES IN WINTER 



Words fail to describe adequately to 

 one who has never witnessed it the 

 nightly gathering at a large winter roost 

 of crows. I consider such congregations 

 the most remarkable ornithological phe- 

 nomena that in this day and age can still 

 be witnessed in the thickly settled sec- 

 tions of our country (see page 328). 



And, strange to relate, an extremely 

 small part of the populace realizes the 

 significance of those seemingly endless 

 streams of black forms passing twice 

 daily to and from the roosts, sometimes 

 directly over thickly settled metropolitan 

 sections. Fewer still have any conception 

 of the countless thousands that gather 

 at the hub of the converging streams. 

 Mention of the numbers estimated at 



several of the better-known roosts may 

 give some impression of the immensity 

 of these conclaves. 



One of the most notable roosts was that 

 formerly located at Arlington, Va., where 

 at the height of its occupancy from 150,- 

 000 to 200,000 crows gathered nightly. 



The so-called "Arbutus" roost, near 

 Baltimore, Md., contained in 1888 about 

 200,000 birds. At about the same time 

 one or more roosts in the vicinity of St. 

 Louis, Mo., harbored from 70,000 to 

 90,000 crows, and the one at Peru, Nebr., 

 had from 100,000 to 200,000. Other 

 roosts in which it was estimated the in- 

 dividuals aggregated more than 100,000 

 were formerly located at Hainesport, 

 Merchant ville, Bridgeboro, and Center- 

 ton, N. J., and on Reedy Island, in the 

 Delaware River. 



Some of these roosts, or their suc- 

 cessors near by, still shelter many thou- 

 sands of birds, although I am inclined to 

 believe that in the East the crow roosts 

 are becoming: smaller. But the total num- 



