The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-11-03
GROWS MEET IN CAUCUS.
Before Going south They Hold Big Re- unions-Frost frightsns Them-0reat Annual Powwows, but What Do They Masa2

unions-Frost Frightens Them-GreAt
 Annual Powwows, but What Do They
 Mean2
 New York Press.l
 After the duties of incubation are past. crows lead a happy and industri- ous life with their young, teaching the brood how to find food for themselves. and to avoid the dangers they are lia- ble to encounter from the manifold traps set by the farmer to Sthe hunter with his gun on his shoulder. It's said this sagaclous bird smells powder. Ills sharpness and cunning in avoiding 1t would almost make one believe so. The young are taught early to steer clear of all men with sticks In hand roaming at large through the woods. while the loud. urgent 'Caw. cav, caw' the old crows danger signal. is familiar to everybody.
 As the evenings become cool. the parent birds, with their charges, now as large as themselves, join with others of their sort until all the crows that inhabit a radius of twenty miles or so arc banded together. For a month more they pick up their living as one large family. seen everywhere in fioclSs. Sooner or later Jack Frost arrives. This is the signal the crows seem to have waited for, as the morning after the ground becomes white, these sable marauders choose an open spot; gener- ally if near tide water, a marsh is pre- ferred, and throwing out two or more sentinels, like the good generals they are, begin O regular conference meeting. The ground, from 20 to 200 feet, accord ing to the size of the flock. is black with them. An irregular ring Is formed. and a speaker, or rather several speak, CTS, hold forth, much to the edification Of the rest. The assembly is thorough ly noisy, and their loud cawing at such times is audible half a mile away. The gathering Is continued generally. if not oiolai bSub dl luC 5diiiC ptdOS iOi oSNSi oA days, gaining in intensity like pro- tracted camp meeting, as though they realized the importance of coming to speedy decision.
 Presently the interested countryman or naturalist, who has been a silent observer at a distance of this bird 'powwow," wakes up some morning to find thin film of ice has formed in. wet places over the landscape. He then glances down to the distant meadow or marsh just to see how the crows like it. To his surprise there. are none there. Their meeting ground Is vacant and not so much as a feather is in sight. They are off, he thinks, but just when and how he cannot imagine.
 A month or six weeks may pass and this casual observer, who has neither seen nor heard crow in the mean time, is astounded some day by the old familiar sounds while he notices a black body or two busily at work at their usual haunts. Though the winter Is at hand he thinks, perhaps eff he has not given the matter some thought, that these birds are the forerunners of the old lot. He is entirely wrong in ais conclusions. These newcomers are crows that have spent the summer far to the northward, reaching their pres- ent location only after long migra- ton. . ' ,.. ~a -.' 4 s''.-t \ :. -s Hardy fellows they are, who will brave winters blasts without leaving New York state. But let us follow the main body south. The immediate yicin- ity of Baltimore and Washington are great resorts for them. The writer,s sa's a schoolboy in Baltimore one winter, on half holidays, shot 104 of these birds by hiding behind the road fence and taking the crows on the wing as they flew over the turnpike on. their way to the cattle yards which skirted the city.
 For many years past the crows have had a roasting place near Arlington General Lees old flome--now a nation al cemetery), opposite Washington, on the Virginia side, of the Potomac. It is a familiar and a daily sight to. the inhabitants of the capital, during the winter months, to see them passing overhead in the early morning, going east to their feeding grounds, which are usually the shores of Chesapeake bay, though they glean the marshes and branches of the Potomac river as well. They spend the day in this man. ner, returning in great focks form 3 to o'clock in the afternoon till dark, in numbers too large to be readily estimat- ed. A low calculation would be 75,0G0. One hundred and fifty thousand was once stated in the Washington Star as a fair guess at them.
 If the day happens to be. windy, the crows show great judgm snt in avoiding the heaviest part of the breeze, sometimes flying so low as just to clear the housetops, and then again soaring so high as not to appear larger than swallows. On the waters edge, if a shellfish is found by one of them with too thick covering to be readily brolk- en, it is taken up into the air and borne away to some rocky part of the shore, where it is dropped from g. height, and the fall rarely fails to break the shell, exposing the dainty meat to the cum ring forager.
 Two or three years ago lot of them conceived a fancy for passing the night in a small patch of woods near tho new observatory, close to the city limits. But their quarters were so handy for the small boy and his bean shooter