Ta oT EA Sadie” aes > Ma 5 Ben io Ae A ee ba ae eat or i S a a, saw 
{f De 3 et Ar A Sj ni pA 
= o” Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. 699 
One afternoon, it being very tempestuous, I stood by an open 
window to shoot the crows as they toiled past, but finding that 
effort fruitless, I sought more profitable diversion in watching 
their manner of flight. They appeared in long, straggling lines 
which were often separated by a distance of a quarter or half 
mile, and came along in detachments, each of which, as is always 
t the case in such weather, maintained the utmost silence. 
Having observed that the line taken by a certain detachment 
was not more than twenty feet in breadth, and that the whole com- 
pany passed between certain shocks of corn, I felt curious to see 
the course of the next, which as yet had not appeared above the 
tree-tops. After the lapse of half a minute a solitary crow ap- 
peared, closely followed by three more, and all in like manner 
and with the common consent of a pack of hounds on the hot 
trail, pursued the invisible course of their predecessors among 
the trees, closed their pinions and stooped, as the others had 
done regardless of the buffeting winds, to the self-same track 
across the corn-field, and followed it. If every stone and shock 
and corn-stub had been a finger-post to mark the path of com- 
pany A to Merchantville, those four sable pilgrims of company B 
could not have traversed “the desert and illimitable air” with more 
undeviating certainty nor have hada more unerring foresightof that 
Mecca of their weary hopes. Long did I watch this mysterious 
phenomenon, till darkness drew the veil. In miniature, thought [, 
have I seen a great and mystic phase of nature; migration ina 
nutshell. Now that we have something tangible to hammer at, 
let us seek the power and means to crack it and extract that ker- 
nel, long coveted by man; contented no longer to assign the a 
honor of cracking such to a “future generation.” A pack of 
hounds, closely following the scent, presents a tangible relation — 
to the mind. We can conceive of an odor that touches earth — 
and of olfactory powers sufficient to trace. it thus, though we 7 
Ourselves possess them not; nay further, we can comprehend the 
canine ability to scent, through sole medium of the atmosphere, — 
across trackless districts and great distances, and now-a-days we 
should no longer hesitate to ascribe similar powers to vulturine 
birds, which in addition possess a wondrous gift of vision. May 
_ We deny the /atter to the crow or dispute that the former sense is 
Not only of every-day use to him (though ina modified degree) _ 
