F 
698 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. [August, 
island and to sleep secure from the nocturnal prowlers of the 
mainland pines. 
To this decade we must revert for reasons which could not 
agree with the advanced civilization of a later century. But 
while we may account thus for the original impulse, wherefore 
should there be such provincialism among a few when there was 
ample chance and territory for the many to do likewise ? 
Were the Pea Patch and Reedy island crows Spartans or 
Helots in the corvine commonwealth? Did they transmit their 
predilections from father to son, or was caste determined by the 
query : “ How do-you roost, on Pea Patch island or in a tree Pe 
This may seem as mere child’s prattle, yet it is worthy of | 
serious conjecture, to say the least, whether sectional family traits | 
are transmitted and obeyed by succeeding generations with as 
blind devotion and prejudice in birds as in man himself. Indeed, 
_ instances of heredity in tastes and anomalous predilections in the 
brute world are frequent and indisputable facts. As to their con- y 
tinuance through time until distinctive traits become gradually 
_ of generic consequence, we may well defer conjecture and await 
a more decisive answer in the future developments of scientific 
research. 
: Apropos of this question we may just here consider anothe | 
_ not wholly dissimilar, relating to the subject in hand and, as will 
-~ beseen, involving the general principles of migration. : 
My residence is situated exactly in the track of the principal a 
_ flight of crows which fly, evening and morning, to and from thor 
roost, five miles distant and which is located near Merchantville, 
- Camden county, New Jersey. n 
=- On a windy evening the birds fly very low, as they pass over : 
open fields nearly brushing the surface of the ground with their 
_ wings. 
ther, 
On the west side of the house stretches a belt of woodland 
separated therefrom by an open field which the crows always tra- 
verse in their eastward course at night. This woodland is narrow, 
and as they approach its western boundary each crow elevates its n 
flight sufficiently to pass among the tree-tops, and then imme- 
diately descends to a former level on reaching my field of pee 
vation. Birds therefore advancing on the farthest side of 
wood cannot be seen nor can they see the course of those BT 
ing the field, 
ae ae ae eres ce ce T eae 
