CROW. 
241 
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 descrip- 
tions of a rural evening. Burns, in a single line, has 
finely sketched it : — ■ 
The blackening trains of craws to their repose. 
The most noted crow roost that I am acquainted 
with 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 rendez- 
vous, 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 evening assembly, and reascen- 
sion in the morning, and the depredations they commit 
in the immediate neighbourhood of this great resort, 
are almost incredible. Whole fields of corn are some- 
times laid waste by thousands alighting on it at once, 
with appetites whetted by the fast of the preceding 
night ; and the utmost vigilance is unavailing to pre- 
vent, at least, a partial destruction of this their favourite 
grain. Like the stragglers of an immense, undisciplined, 
and rapacious army, they spread themselves over the 
fields, to plunder and destroy wherever they alight. 
It is here that the character of the crow is universally 
execrated ; and to say to the man who has lost his crop 
of corn by these birds, that crows are exceedingly 
VOL. I. Q 
