STATEN ISLAND CROWS AND THEIR ROOSTS. 
BY WILLIAM T. DAVIS. 
Able-bodied Crows do not roost on Staten Island in winter, 
but fly as night approaches to better protected retreats in New 
Jersey. In ordinary winters five or six hundred visit the island 
daily, and generally repair to the South Beach where they find a 
considerable store of food, in the fish, crabs, and other dead 
creatures that are cast ashore. As the afternoon wears away, the 
Crows fly westerly from the beach, and congregate on the salt 
meadows along Fresh Kill, on the opposite side of the island. 
If these meadows are covered with snow, they assemble in the 
trees, or in some upland field, which is more likely to be bare. 
Here, with additions to their number from other parts of the 
island, they hold a convention, and gradually, by twos and by 
threes, and in small flocks, fly either along the Kill out to the 
Sound, or diagonally across Long Neck to New Jersey, to a 
roost that lies north or northwest of Staten Island. 
Many afternoons have been spent in watching the Crows at Long 
Neck and elsewhere on the island, and a few specific observations 
will be offered as evidence here, though a more detailed account 
is to be found in the Proceedings of the Natural Science Asso- 
ciation of Staten Island, for May 12, 1894. 
Sunday, December 24, and Christmas day, 1893, were both 
very mild ; there was a warm wind and no snow on the ground. 
On these occasions several hundred Crows gathered on the salt 
meadows in the afternoon, near the head of the main branch of 
hundred flew over the water to Sandy Hook. The chief depart- 
ure was about 4 p. m. At fifteen minutes past four they had 
nearly all gone, but I observed a few belated individuals fly 
boldly from the Staten Island shore near the light house, without 
any rest previous to undertaking their long journey. Thus many 
