70 BUILDS A DOMED NEST. 



discordant babel of sounds as their friends and 

 companions the barkers, but caw much as do 

 our jackdaws. 



The seacoast is abandoned when the breeding- 

 time arrives, early in May, when they resort in 

 pairs to the interior; selecting a patch of open 

 prairie, where there are streams and lakes, and 

 the wild crab-apple and white-thorn grows, in 

 which they build nests precisely like that of the 

 magpie, arched over the top with sticks. The 

 bird enters by a hole on one side, but leaves by 

 an exit- hole on the opposite. The inside is plas- 

 tered with mud ; a few grass-stalks strewn loosely 

 on the bottom keep the eggs from rolling. This 

 is so marked a difference to the Barking Crow's 

 nesting, as in itself to be a specific distinction. 

 The eggs are lighter in the blotching, and much 

 smaller. I examined great numbers of nests at 

 this prairie, and on the Columbia, but invariably 

 found the same habit of doming prevailed. After 

 nesting, they return with the young to the sea- 

 coasts, and remain in large flocks, often asso- 

 ciated with the Barking Crows, until nesting- 

 time comes again. During their sojourn inland, 

 their food consists principally of small reptiles, 

 freshwater molluscs, or grubs; and I have seen 

 them catch butterflies flying near their nests, 



