CROW. 
83 
Towards the close of summer, the parent Crows, with their 
new families, forsaking their solitary lodgings, collect together, 
as if by previous agreement, when evening approaches. 
About an hour before sunset, they 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 sometimes 
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 blackening trains of Crows to their repose. 
The most noted Crow roost with which I am acquainted is near 
Newcastle, on an Island in the Delaware. It is there known 
by the name of the Pea Patch, and is a low, flat, alluvial spot, of 
a few acres, elevated but a little above high water mark, and 
covered with a thick growth of reeds. This appears to be the 
grand rendezvous, or head-quarters, of the greater part of the 
Crows within forty or fifty miles of the spot. It is entirely 
destitute of trees, the Crows alighting and nestling among the 
reeds, which by these means are broken down and matted 
together. The noise created by those multitudes, both in their 
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, towering in Ms pride of place. 
Was by a mousing Owl, hawk’d at and kill’d. 
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 a 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.” 
