ORNITHOLOGIST 
— AND — 
OOLOGIST. 
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Published fok the BRISTOL ORNITHOLOGICAL 
Established, March, 1875. 
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VOL. XIII. 
BOSTON, MASS., FEBRUARY, 
1888. 
No. 2. 
The Crows’ Winter Roost at St. 
Louis. 
BY OTTO WIDMANN. 
St. Louis Ibis many sights worth seeing, all 
more or less known and appreciated, but one of 
its greatest natural curiosities, the big roost of 
wintering crows on Arsenal Island, where 
thousands and perhaps a hnndred of thousand 
crows congregate, is never mentioned. 
The Crow is a common summer resident in 
this part of the country. Every grove has its 
pair nesting, and around their favorite feeding 
grounds a dozen crows may be seen together 
any day during the breeding season. To these 
places the young resort when able to fly, and 
parties of thirty or so are nothing unusual in 
summer, oftener or sooner heard than seen, 
especially when the presence of a hawk excites 
their hatred. 
In the neigborhood of their winter roost, they 
are not seen in any unusual numbers before the 
middle of September. The river front of St. 
Louis is sixteen miles long. The centre of the 
city with the courthouse is about half way of 
this long line. Four miles south of the court- 
house, down the river, is the head of an island, 
called Arsenal Island (formerly Smallpox Is- 
land, because during the civil war the smallpox 
hospital was situated on this island). 
At that time the head of the island was oppo- 
site the St. Louis Arsenal, and for that reason 
the name of Arsenal Island was given. At the 
present day the island begins one mile south of 
the Arsenal, having been washed off continually 
at its head until about live years ago, when it 
was fixed by strong embankments erected by 
the government. At the same time, in order to 
force the current to the Missouri side, the is- 
land was connected with the Illinois shore by 
a dam which obstructed the flow of water so 
much that the old channel east of the island 
is nearly dry now in summer, and willows be- 
gin to grow in many places. The island is 
therefore steadily growing ; it is two miles long, 
one-fourth mile wide, mostly grown up with 
willows and cotton woods, from twenty-five 
years old at its present head, where the flora is 
already more varied by admixture of shrubs 
and climbers, to one year old and entirely new 
growth at its recent additions. The foot of the 
island is a sandbank, changeable in size accord- 
ing to the stage of water, at the present low 
water about half a mile long, and reaching to 
the Illinois shore in the vicinity of the Besse- 
mer Steel Works. 
The island is not inhabited except by a single 
old man, who keeps a few cows in summer and 
tries to raise a little corn for their feed. He 
does not molest any of its feathered visitors, 
but the island is a much frequented shooting 
ground for boy hunters who make it very un- 
safe on Sundays. 
This island has been chosen by the crows for 
their winter roost, and during the fifteen years 
in which I lived in the neighborhood, I have 
seen them regularly every winter. 
The reason why the crows selected this island 
seems to be the convenient position in regard to 
food supply coupled with comparative safety 
from nightly raids. 
The food supply is twofold : On the land, the 
environs of a large city surrrounded by gar- 
dens and dairies and pastures, etc. 
On the water, the rich harvest provided by 
the dumping places of the city which throws 
its garbage into the river to carry it off'. 
The crow is the typical scavenger, and the 
choice of its winter roost proves it. If it could 
live on corn and mice, it would spend the win- 
ter hawk-fashion, in solitude around some out 
of the way corn field, or would scatter in small 
troops broadcast over the country. 
It is no mice destroyer. Neither is it a grain 
eater. I have examined thousands of pellets 
(the indigestible parts of food thrown up), 
which are lying under the trees where they 
Copyright, 1888, by It H. Carpenter and r. B. Webster. 
