and directing
their course to the wooded heights on the Potomac, west of the city.
In spring these diurnal mass movements cease; the clan breaks up, the
rookery is abandoned, and the birds scatter broadcast over the land.
This seems to be the course everywhere pursued. One would think that,
when food was scarcest, the policy of separating into small bands or
pairs, and dispersing over a wide country, would prevail, as a few
might subsist where a larger number would starve. The truth is,
however, that, in winter, food can be had only in certain clearly
defined districts and tracts, as along rivers and the shores of bays
and lakes.

A few miles north of Newburgh, on the Hudson, the crows go into winter
quarters in the same manner, flying south in the morning and returning
again at night, sometimes hugging the hills so close during a strong
wind as to expose themselves to the clubs and stones of schoolboys
ambushed behind trees and fences. The belated ones, that come laboring
along just at dusk, are often so overcome by the long journey and the
strong current that they seem almost on the point of sinking down
whenever the wind or a rise in the ground calls upon them for an extra
effort.

The turkey buzzards are noticeable about Washington as soon as the
season begins to open, sailing leisurely along two or three hundred
feet overhead, or sweeping low over some common or open space where,
perchance, a dead puppy or pig or fowl has been thrown. Half a dozen
will sometimes alight about some object out on the commons, and, with
their broad dusky wings lifted up to their full extent, threaten and
chase each other, while perhaps one or two are feeding. Their wings
are very large and flexible, and the slightest motion of them, while
the bird stands upon the ground, suffices to lift its feet clear.
Their movements when in the air are very majestic and beautiful to the
eye, being in every respect identical with those of our common hen or
red-tailed hawk. They sail along in the same calm, effortless,
interminable manner, and sweep around in the same ample spiral. The
shape of their wings and tail, indeed their entire effect against the
sky, except in size and color, is very nearly the same as that of the
hawk mentioned. A dozen at a time may often be seen high in air,
amusing themselves by sailing serenely round and round in the same
circle.

They are less active and vigilant than the hawk; never poise
themselves on the wing, n