128 
SINGING BIRDS. 
away by blows. In turn, however, the Crow finds enemies too 
powerful for him to conquer, such as the Kite and Eagle Owl, 
who occasionally make a meal of this carrion bird, — a voracious 
propensity which the Virginian Owl also sometimes exhibits 
towards the same species. Wherever the Crow appears, the 
smaller birds take the alarm, and vent upon him their just 
suspicions and reproaches. But it is only the redoubtable 
King Bird who has courage for the attack, beginning the onset 
by pursuing and diving on his back from above, and haras- 
sing the plunderer with such violence that he is generally glad 
to get out of the way and forego his piratical visit ; in short, a 
single pair of these courageous and quarrelsome birds are suf- 
ficient to clear the Crows from an extensive cornfield. 
The most serious mischief of which the Crow is guilty 
is that of pillaging the maize-field, tie commences at the 
planting-time by picking up and rooting out the sprouting 
grain, and in the autumn, when it becomes ripe, whole flocks, 
now assembled at their roosting-places, blacken the neighboring 
fields as soon as they get into motion, and do extensive dam- 
age at every visit, from the excessive numbers who now rush to 
the inviting feast. 
Their rendezvous or roosting-places are the resort in au- 
tumn of all the Crows and their families for many miles round. 
The blackening silent train continues to arrive for more than 
an hour before sunset, and some still straggle on until dark. 
They never arrive in dense flocks, but always in long lines, 
each falling into the file as he sees opportunity. This gregarious 
inclination is common to many birds in the autumn which 
associate only in pairs in the summer. The forests and groves, 
stripped of their agreeable and protecting verdure, seem no 
longer safe and pleasant to the feathered nations. Exposed to 
the birds of prey, which daily augment in numbers ; penetrated 
by the chilling blasts, which sweep without control through the 
naked branches, — the birds, now impelled by an overruling 
instinct, seek in congregated numbers some general, safer, and 
more commodious retreat. Islands of reeds, dark and solitary 
thickets, and neglected swamps, are the situations chosen for 
