PASSEEES COEVIDAE C. COEAX VAE. CABNiVOEUS. 325 



Corvus corax, HEEKM., P. E. E. Bep., x, pt. ii, 1859, 54. ALLEN, Bui. MHS. (Jomp. 



Zool., 1872, 178 (Kansas; Colorado; Wyoming; Utah). Id., Proc. Bost. 



Soc. Nat, Hist,, June, 1674, 31. COUES, Birds Northwest, 1874, 204. 

 Corvus corax (var. ?), COUES, Key N. A. Birds, 1872, 102. 



. The raven is everywhere an abundant summer resident throughout the 

 Middle and Southern Region. In summer, there ensues a very general dis- 

 persion of the species ; the birds associating in pairs, and retiring to the 

 solitude of the wilderness, where they find, in the clefts and openings of 

 inaccessible cliffs, convenient and safe resting places for their nests. Such 

 rocky fastnesses failing, they content themselves with the top of a tall pine 

 or other tree. Their appetite is voracious, and, as quantity not quality is 

 the chief principle governing their desires, they eat almost everything that 

 falls in their way. Like the crow, during the spring and summer, ere the 

 ripening seeds and grain are attainable, they are indefatigable in their search 

 after slugs and large insects of any kind, frequenting for this purpose, in the 

 cultivated districts, the plowed lands, or the extensive cattle ranges, where 

 the presence of the stock is always accompanied by an abundance of insect 

 life. The presence of a dead or exhausted and dying animal, no matter 

 how deep in the wilderness, is detected with wonderful quickness by these 

 feeders upon carrion, and the tidings seem fairly borne on the wings of the 

 wind, so soon are the trees and rocks in the neighborhood covered with the 

 ravens, who, with the vultures and coyotes, soon strip the flesh away and 

 leave but the whitening bones. They have sharp eyes, too, to detect, the 

 presence of man, and, always in early morning, the impatient croakings of 

 one or two pairs were heard near our camp, as they restlessly moved about, 

 awaiting the moment when our departure should enable them to swoop 

 down into the camp, and quarrel over any stray morsels left behind. In the 

 fall, as the cold weather comes on, and foraging becomes more precarious, 

 they collect about the military posts and settlements, ready tq snap up 

 whatever chance or the wastefulness of man shall throw in their way. 



As quick to learn by experience that man meditates no evil against 

 them, as the crow in the populous section of the East is to acquire a differ- 

 ent lesson till with it man and danger have become synonymous, the ravens 

 seem often to totally disregard his presence, and to pursue their avocations 



