86 The Ottawa Naturalist. [June 



OOLOGY. 



Note on the Nesting of the Northern Raven (Corvus corax 



principalis ) in Canada. 

 By J. F. Whiteaves. 



The Museum of the Geological Survey has recently acquired 

 a full and perfect clutch, of five eggs, of the Northern Raven, 

 from Mr. R. W. Tufts, ot Wolfville, Nova Scotia, who took them, 

 on the 22nd of March last, from a nest in the Gaspereau Valley. 

 The label accompanying these eggs states that the nest 

 from which they were taken and which was not disturbed, 

 is placed in a "large hemlock about fifty feet from the 

 ground," that it is "composed of sticks and lined with 

 wool and coarse grass stems," that it had been " repaired 

 year after year," and that the five eggs were " one-third incu- 

 bated" when taken. These eggs are unusually small for the 

 species, an average one measuring 48.5 x 32.5 mm. Evidently, 

 Mr. Tufts writes, they were laid by old birds, which may account 

 for the small size of the eggs. The nesting place, he adds, has been 

 occupied for a number of years, and there is a large accumulation 

 of material there. Prior to the receipt of this clutch, there were, 

 in the same Museum, seven eggs of the Northern Raven, two 

 from Nova Scotia and five from the Mackenzie River District, but 

 ho complete and perfect set. The two from Nova Scotia are two- 

 fifths of a clutch of five eggs taken at Truro, in 1897, by or for 

 Colonel T. J. Egan, of Halifax, three of which were broken. The 

 two remaining are unusually large, one of them measuring 

 54 X 34.5 mm. The other five were brought to the Museum by 

 Mr. J. W. Tyrrell, and are labelled " Raven's eggs, found on 

 Artillery Lake, May 24th, igoo, by C. Fairchild." Artillery Lake, 

 it may be mentioned, is north-east of Great Slave Lake, and Mr. 

 Fairchild was Mr. Tyrrell's assistant in his explorations of the 

 Barren Grounds between Great Slave Lake and Hudson Bay. 

 Three of these eggs were, unfortunately, slightly damaged in 

 transit. All of them are end-blown, and it is not stated whether 

 they are from the same nest or not. By their coloration they could 

 quite easily be separated into two sets, one of two eggs and the 

 other of three. An average one measures 51, x 35 mm. 



Ottawa, May 19, 1902. 



