1886, ] Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 697 
their arrival on Reedy island, just above the commencement of 
the bay of that river (Delaware) in vast numbers.” 
One correspondent states that since the erection of Fort Dela- 
ware it would be impossible for crows to finda night’s lodging on 
Pea Patch. Fortifications were begun there in the year 1814, 
and in 1860 the fort was greatly strengthened and became for the 
first time a place of importance. Summing up these facts I am 
led, in the absence of direct evidence, to believe that this noted 
roost was abandoned soon after the construction of Ft. Delaware 
was begun in 1814, and that the crows betook themselves to 
Reedy island as the most convenient substitute. 
John Deputy’s plan, whatever that was, of banishing the crows 
from their favorite island may have been successful ere the place 
became Ft: Delaware, but in case of his probable failure we may — 
safely suppose an idle garrison of United States troops were not 
slow to improve their peculiar opportunities for rifle practice and 
midnight massacre on these feathered aborigines. 
So far as my inquiries have gone, I find that here is an anom- 
aly confined to two small islands in the River Delaware, which, 
_ for years unnumbered, have been the nightly resort of crows, 
| We cannot assert that Reedy island was not used for roosting 
~ Purposes in the time of Wilson, but it seems probable that we 
, should have heard from him regarding it had it been so fre- 
quented, as the two places are but seven miles apart. 
: Such islands are not confined to the waters of the Delaware ; 
) why then such departure from a general rule in favor of using 
bs them alone > The reeds afforded a miserable substitute for pine 
~ boughs, and when they became. broken down by the numbers 
accumulated upon them, we may well picture the misery of roost- 
ing on a mud flat in winter with the snow a foot deep. 
The utter contrast between roosting on a reedy flat wholly 
void of other vegetation and subject to sudden inundation by 
oy tide, and going to bed among the dense pine forests of New 
2 Jersey, is evidently beyond the comprehension of a crow, and may 
- well tax the imagination of an uninformed man. 
Mayhap in the first decade of the seventeenth century, ere 
Hudson had discovered Delaware bay, and when freshets, neap- _ 
tides and pale faces were not, crows may have rejoiced to get © 
foothold for a night’s rest on the peaceful shores of Pea Patch — 
