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1886.] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 695 
produced by a recital of the adventures they had encoun- 
tered during the last marauding excursions. As the sun became 
entirely sunk below the horizon the grand flock crossed to the 
sand-bluff on the opposite side, where they generally spent a few 
moments in picking up a further supply of gravel, and then 
arising in dense and ample column they sought their habitual 
roost in the deep entanglements of the distant pines. 
t Dr. Godman, after describing some of the methods employed 
a by professional crow-hunters to secure these outlawed birds be- 
cause of the price set on their heads by the State of Maryland 
during the years 1800 to 1804, inclusive, continues : 
“ But the grand harvest of crow-heads was derived from the 
invasion of their dormitories, which are well worthy a particular 
description and should be visited by every one who wishes to 
orm a proper idea of the number of these birds that may be 
accumulated in a single district. The roost is most commonly 
the densest pine thicket that can be found, generally at no great 
. distance from some river, bay or other sheet of water which is + 
the last to freeze, or rarely is altogether frozen. To such a roost 
the crows which are, during the day time, scattered over perhaps 
more than a hundred miles of circumference, wing their way every 
afternoon and arrive shortly after sunset. - 
“ Endless columns pour in from various quarters, and as the 
arrive pitch upon their accustomed perches, crowding closely to- 
gether for the benefit of the warmth and shelter afforded by the 
thick foliage of the pine. The trees are literally bent by their 
weight, and the ground is covered for many feet in depth by their- 
dung, which by its gradual fermention must also tend to increase n 
the warmth of the roost. Such roosts are known to be thus 7 
Occupied for years, beyond the memory of individuals, and I 
know of one or two which the oldest residents in that quarter. 
= State to have been known to their grandfathers, and probably had 
been resorted to by the crows during several ages previou: 
There is one of great age and magnificent extent in the vicinity 
of Rock creek, an arm of the Patapsco. it alee 
“They are sufficiently numerous on the rivers opening into _ 
the Chesapeake, and are everywhere similar in their general 
Bristol, Pa., and I know by observation that not less than a mil- 
lion of crows sleep there nightly during the winter season, To — 
Sather crow-heads from the roost a very large party was made © 
- ee uoned to the extent of surface occupied by the dor- — 
“Armed with double-barreled and duck guns which threw a — 
large charge of shot, the company was divided into small par- r 
vou, 
