804 JOURNAL, BOMB AY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXVIll. 
No. Vm.— ON THE HOMING FLIGHT OF THE COMMON HOUSE-CROW 
{CORVUS SPLENDENS). 
A friend of mine has recently furnished me with a most interesting account 
of an extraordinary flight of Common House-Crows {Corvus splendens) which 
he witnessed not long ago. As I have not had a similar experience, nor do I 
know of anyone else who has, I give below a brief description of what my friend 
saw. There are, possibly, some members of the Society who may have noticed 
a similar flight of crows, and if so, it would be interesting to know what explana- 
tions they have to offer as to the cause or causes of such flights. I imderstand 
that there is no record in our Journal, so that this note may be of some 
interest. Some who read this note will perhaps think that the facts are greatly 
exaggerated, but I am satisfied that there is very httle, if any, exaggeration. 
While undertaking a railway journey between Lahore and Ambala on the 14th 
January this year a large number of common house-crows was observed 
moving in the same direction as the train between the stations of Goraya and 
PiuUaur. The most noticeable featurej about this flight was the number of 
birds seen. My friend states that the crows were at least “ ten deep ” that 
they were in a solid phalanx about three miles in length, and that the number 
of crows he saw must have run into terhs of thousands. The birds were all 
flying in one fixed direction, viz., from North-West to South-East, and appeared 
to be coming in the direction of Phillaur from some point North-West of that 
statioa The birds were close to the train and were flying parallel to it, sometimes 
very near to the carriages and sometimes a httle distance away. The height at 
which the crows were flying was estimated at about 40 feet approximately, as 
they were above the tops of the trees (keekur and babool) growing in that part 
of the country through which the train was passing; the rate at which the crows 
were flying was estimated at 15 miles per hour; and the manner of their 
flight was a steady flapping. It is stated that some of the crows seemed to bo 
slowing down and gave the impression that they had flown for a considerable 
distance. This idea was apparently a correct one, because along the whole 
route many trees were covered with evidently tired birds. The time at which 
this extraordinary flight of crows were seen was between five and six o’clock 
in the evening. The atmospheric conditions were : an overclouded sky, a 
low temperature sufficiently cold to make one close the windows of the railway 
carriage, and a eutting breeze from the North. 
My friend is quite certain that the birds he saw were common house-crows 
{C. splendens), and further, that there were no other kinds of crows (e. g. C. 
macrorhynchus) or, in fact, any other species of birds which formed the enormous 
flock. 
The above are the main facts concerning this curious flight. What were 
the causes which led to it ? I cannot offer any explanation which I can say is 
correct. I am inchned to think that this flight was due to migration, which 
in turn was probably caused (?) either by (a) sudden change in chmate in the 
place from which the crows were coming, or (b) lack of food-supply in that place. 
These seem to me to be obvious reasons which would explain why the flight was 
undertaken, but can there be any other causes, and if so, what are they ? The 
facts that the crows were flying in such numbers, were aU flying in one direction 
and in a fixed manner, were slowly slackening in speed, and were resting on 
trees en route, aU point to migration. I do not think that it can be said that 
the crows were going to roost. Is the common house-crow a recognised migra- 
tory species in the sense that some ducks are ? Is it even a locally migratory 
species ? I should think that lack of food-supply would not have a strong 
influence in the distribution of so ubiquitous and omnivorous a species. Again, 
is it possible for the climate in a particular area in which crows are found to 
suddenly change in such a manner as to drive out the crows from that place P 
