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Towards the close of summer, tlie parent Crows, witli their new 
families, forsaking their solitary lodgings, collect together, as if by 
previous agreement, when evening approaches. About an hour before 
sunset, tliey are first observed, flying somewhat in Indian file, in one 
direction, at a short height above the tops of the trees, silent and steady, 
keeping the general curvature of the ground, continuing to pass some- 
times till after sunset, so that the whole line of march would extend for 
many miles. This circumstance, so familiar and picturesque, has not 
been overlooked by the poets, in their descriptions of a rural evening. 
Burns, in a single line, has finely sketched it 
'' The black'ning train of Crows to their repose." 
The most noted Crow-i'oost with which I am acquainted is near 
Newcastle, on an island in the Delaware. It is there known by the 
name of the Pea-Patcli, and is a low flat alluvial spot, of a few acres, 
roost. Returning homeward one afternoon from a shooting excursion, I had occa- 
sion to pass through this swamp. It was near sunset, and troops of Crows were 
flying in all directions over my head. While engaged in observing their flight, and 
endeavoring to select from among them an oliject to shoot at, my ears were sud- 
denly assailed by the distressful cries of a Crow, who was evidently struggling 
under the talons of a merciless and rapacious enemj'. I hastened to the spot whence 
the sound proceeded, and to my great surprise, found a Crow lying on the ground, 
just expiring, and, seated upon the body of the yet warm and bleeding quarry, a 
large brown Owl, who was beginning to make a meal of the unfortunate robber of 
corn-fields. Perceiving my apjjroach, he forsook his prey with evident reluctance, 
and flew into a tree at a little distance, where he sat watching all my movements, 
alternately regarding, with longing eyes, the victim he had been forced to leave, 
and darting at me no very friendly looks, that seemed to reproach me for having 
deprived him of his expected regale. I confess that the seene before me was alto- 
gether novel and surprising. I am but little conversant with natural history ; but 
I had always understood, that the depredations of the Owl were confined to the 
smaller birds, and animals of the lesser kind; such as mice, young rabbits, &c ; 
and that he obtained his prey rather by fraud and stratagem, than by open rapacity 
and violence. I was the more confirmed in this belief, from the recollection of a 
passage in Macbeth, which now forcibly recurred to my memory. The courtiers 
of King Duncan are recounting to each other the various prodigies that preceded 
his death, and one of them relates to his wondering auditors, that 
' An Eagle, tow'ring in his pride of place, 
AVas, by a mousing Owl, hawked at and killed.' 
But to resume my relation. That the Owl was the murderer of the unfortunate 
Crow, there could be no doubt. No other bird of prey was in sight; I had not 
fired my gun since I entered the wood ; nor heard any one else shoot: besides, the 
unequivocal situation in which I found the parties, would have been sufficient before 
any 'twelve good men and true,' or jury of Crows, to have convicted him of his 
guilt. It is proper to add, that I avenged the death of the hapless Crow, by a well- 
aimed shot at the felonious robber, that extended him breathless on the ground." 
