80
Concord, Mass.
1913.
Aug. 26
to
Nov. 13
(No 31)

circling low over the house at 11 A.M. on October 27 [October 27, 1913]; a fifth
of 300 + (estimated) and a sixth of approximately the same
number which passed, respectively, over the orchard towards 
the S.W. [southwest] at 8 A.M. & 4 P.M. on October 29 [October 29, 1913]. In every
instance when the flock was moving straight on to
the southward all its numbers flapped their wings incessantly
(or nearly so) and kept to a level plane, wholly refraining
from the successive undulations so characteristic of ordinary 
flight. Their speed, also, was very much greater than usual 
and, indeed, rather surprisingly so. The only straggling bird
noted during the autumn was a [female] that alighted in
the oaks behind our barn on October 17 [October 17, 1913].

78. Corvus americanus. - Constantly present in normal
numbers. The bird with the odd caw-caw cry
heard almost daily. On August 27 [August 27, 1913] I was not
a little surprised to see 62 Crows rise, one after
another, from the meadow just across the river
from Ball's Hill to which they must have been drawn
by some unusual attraction for it is scarcely reasonable
to assume that they were migratory. Unmistakable
south-bound flights coming from further north were
noted on October 21 [October 21, 1913] when upwards of 300 birds appeared
circling in a dense cloud over the Farm at 8 A.M.;
on the 29th, when about 150 passed rather high in
air & in loose, straggling order, so that the first
were well night out of sight to the S.W. [southwest] before the
last appeared in the distance to the N.E. [northeast] - much
as they fly over Washington of a winter evening. A
flight (similarly straggling) of 31 birds passed in the
same direction at 1 P.M. on November 6 [November 6, 1913] and another