786 Crow Roosts and Roosting Crows. (September, 
above me, reproducing, as I thought, their call-note with sufficient 
exactness. Had I discharged my gun their consternation could 
not have been greater, for in an instant there was a hush, followed 
by a sudden uprising of thousands occupying the perches nearest 
to me, and then for a minute the uproar was tremendous, every 
tongue seemed upbraiding. 
When order was restored I climbed a tree, and on reaching 
the ordinary roosting level, repeated the experiment. Herel 
found a man’s voice had no terrors, and so long as I “cawed” 
they took no notice of me. 
of surprise or joy or alarm. 
These observations on the roosting language of crows may 
receive considerable and interesting addition from a critical study 
of the bird during the spring and summer seasons, for in the bei 
clusion of the family circle his converse differs widely from t n 
described. y way of conclusion I may further add that the 
programme of dispersion from the roost in the morning to their 
feeding grounds is as follows : i 
After an hour’s babel (for such verily is the seeming conha 
of tongues) a few crows essay to take leave, but as soon as x r 
folly is observed it literally “ brings down the house, and w = 
one imagines the simultaneous shout of twenty acres of crows, 
one may not wonder that “ the house” is fully able to bring dows 
the crows. The “few crows” resume their perches and com 
parative quiet is restored. : ; 
Numerous attempts are thus made with a like result "o 
nearly sunrise, when detachments of 500 to 1000 successive = 
take wing amid the wildest enthusiasm. These circle and pss 
about in headlong swoops and elegant curves above the psi 7 
and each having taken his bearings moves off in one of the parE 
lines of flight that eastward, westward, to north and south € 
om the common center as the spokes of a wheel. a 
Ere the sun looks out upon the scene a silence almost ea dy 
sive broods over field and woodland, and to one who so gage 
beheld their departure, a scattered remnant of the mig z 
only serves to heighten the feeling of contrasted desolation. 
The appended list includes only those roosts in Penns Y aket 
and New Jersey which have come before the writer's notice, dents. 
by- actual observation or through the kindness of cone bé 
It is given with the hope that its necessary shortcomings mar 
