1887.] PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 555 



NoiDeiiclature of Colors, etc." published by Little, Brown & Co., Boston, 

 1886. The color of a Bobiu's egg 1 would call greenish blue, and that of 

 the egg of the Crissal Thrasher a pale clay-blue. 



If the eggs of the three species are placed side b}' side, as was done 

 by me, the difference becomes at once quite apparent and perceptible. 

 The largest egg in the series measures 1.38 by .87 inches, the smallest 

 LOG by .85 : the average is about 1.23 by .84 inches. They vary in 

 shape from ovate to elongate-ovate. The number of eggs laid by these 

 birds varies from four to seven. Four to a set seems to be the most 

 common number found. In thirty-thi'ee sets there were seventeen con- 

 taining four eggs, seven sets of five, and one each of six and seven eggs, 

 respectively. The remainder were uncompleted sets. The first eggs 

 were found on April G, the last on May 10, 1887; by this time most of 

 the nests examined contained young birds. 



NO. 487. CORVUS CRYPTOLEUCUS Couch. 

 The WniTE-NECKED Raven. 



This species is the most abundant of the Corvidw found in Arizona, 

 and is a resident throughout the year. It is not at all shy. Lieutenant 

 Benson writes me that numbers of them are seen almost daily about the 

 officers' and men's quarters at Fort Huachuca, and that they are so 

 tame that they will often let one pass within 20 feet of them without 

 flying off. I have personally shot numbers of them in my camp on 

 Rillito Creek in the winter of 1873, where I found them quite common, 

 but they did not breed in that vicinity to any great extent. After 

 riding many miles and patient searching, I succeeded in finding two of 

 their nests with eggs, one on May G, the other on June 5, 1872. Both 

 of these nests were placed in the tops of oak trees, from 15 to 20 feet 

 from the ground, in the foot-hills of the Santa Catarina and Eincon 

 Mountains, respectively. 



Lieutenant Benson was more fortunate in finding the nests of this 

 species, taking over fifty sets of their eggs between May 8 and June 18 

 of the present year. He states in one of his letters to me that the 

 White-necked Raven in the vicinity of Fort Huachuca usually builds in 

 mesquite bushes, from 7 to 15 feet from the ground, placing the nests in 

 the top. Occasionally a pair will build on top of a yucca plant. The nests 

 are mostly found on the more open plains not far from the edge of the 

 thicker chaparral, and usually within a mile of this more bushy tract. 

 The nests are constructed of sticks of various sizes; the cavity is rather 

 deep, and this is lined with hair of cattle and rabbits, and frequently 

 with pieces of the hide of these animals. 



They are extremely filthy, and smell horribly. Old nests are repaired 

 from year to year, some of them being, as Lieutenant Benson expresses it, 

 seven or eight stories high, showing use for as many years. The series of 

 eggs of this Raven is one of the finest and most complete in the National 



