168 XATUUAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS IN ALASKA. 



birds, auil iu both cases many examples ai-e found uniting the various extremes. The recoguitioa 

 of the American and European birds as races would involve the separation of the American bird 

 into three races. 



The Old "World birds usually have heavier bills than the American. Tlic ]n\\ is deeper at 

 the base, whence the culmen has a full, well-marked curve to the tip of the bill. There is less of 

 the purple gloss ou the feathers, but one specimen shows this gloss as in American birds, and 

 among the latter may be found the heavy bills and dull plumage apparently most common among 

 European birds. 



COBVUS CAUKINUS Baird. Northwest Crow. 



Bischoft' obtained numerous specimens of this little known bird at Sitka. Dr. Beau found 

 it abundant at Sitka in June and saw others at George Island. From Sitka down the coast to 

 Washington Territory it is very abundant. Au egg of this bird from Sitka has the ground color 

 light sea-green, with markings and blotches of olive-brown, varying in size and of different shades. 



Scarcely anything is known of the habits of this fish-crow, and of the meager account which 

 we possess I quote the most important. According to Mr. J. K. Lord it abandons the sea coast of 

 British Columbia early in May, and builds its nest on trees or bushes on the borders of small 

 prairies in the interior. Their nests are precisely like those of the magpie, arched over with 

 sticks. The bird enters by a hole on one side and leaves by an exit ou the opposite. The inside 

 is plastered with mud and a few grass stalks strewn loosely ou the bottom keep the eggs from 

 rolling. He examined great numbers of nests ou this prairie and on the Columbia, but invariably 

 found the same habit of doming prevailing. While the birds remain inland their food consists of 

 small reptiles, insects, mollusks, and it even captures butterflies on the wing. Both male and female 

 defeud the nest fiercely from all intrusion of bird or mammal. They lay from five to seven eggs, 

 which are smaller and lighter colored than those of the comniou crow. The breeding season over, 

 they return to the sea-coast, the immediate vicinity of which they frequent with the common crow, 

 feeding along the shore at low tide. Mr. Lord's opinion of the specific identity of this bird is 

 upheld by later iuvestigations, particularly those of Mr. Henshaw, though until further work is 

 done, and a larger series of birds at hand, the subject of the crows of the northwest coast cannot 

 be satisfactorily concluded. In the interior of North America Richardson found the Corvus ameri- 

 caniis extending to latitude 01° north, near the Great Slave Lake, and it is to be looked for iu the 

 Upper Yukon region and thereabout. 



At Puget Sound Mr. Henshaw found these birds abundant and saw them frequeuting the 

 exposed reefs, where they gathered shell-fish during low tide, and carried them high over the 

 rocks to drop and break the shell, thus rendering the contents more accessible. This was repeated 

 again and again and api^eared to be their ordinary manner of feeding. 



PicicORVUS COLUMBIA.NUS (Wils.). Clarke's Nutcracker. 



Since the capture of a single Sitkan specimen taken in August by Bischoff, no Alaskan record 

 of this bird has been made. It is likely to be found all along the heavily-wooded coast region 

 from British Columbia, where we learn it is an abundant species, north to the beginning of the 

 peninsula of Ali.iska, since this entire stretch of coast region has approximately the same charac- 

 teristics. 



The first account of the nesting of this species was given by Mr. Lord, who found a uest at 

 Fort Colville, Wash. The eggs of this nest, however, were destroyed by felling the tree, so the 

 description of the eggs and a satisfactory accouut of the nest still remained to be made, and it 

 was only a comparatively short time since that Captain Bendire was able to throw farther light 

 upon this interesting subject. In the vicinityof Camp Harney, Oregon, on April 22, and again on 

 the 27th of this mouth, in 1870, nests of tliis jay were found by him. The first nest he obtained 

 upon the extremity of a pine branch about 25 feet from the ground, and well protected from view 

 by the longer branches projecting both above and below the nest. It was bulky, like all the 

 others he found. The nest proper rested upon a platform of small sticks of white sage placed upon 

 piuft branches, and is composed of dry grass, vegetable fibers, and the fine inner bark of the western 



