LAND BIRDS. 419 



young too small to be of any use as specimens, so they were not molested. 

 They were very noisy, and about two weeks old. February 15, 1891, Mr. 

 Reed, Mr. R. F. Judson and myself again visited the swamp, but did not 

 see or hear a Raven. ^March 6, 1892, Mr. Judson and myself again went 

 to Almena and saw one Raven, but found no nest; this was my last visit 

 to the place." 



Max ]\I. Peet, who accompanied the University of Michigan expedition 

 to Isle Royale, Lake Superior, in the summer of 1905, gives the following 

 interesting account of the habits of the Raven at that place: "The 

 Northern Raven was nowhere common but seemed to occur in limited num- 

 bers all over the island. Three were seen in a cedar swamp on July 29, 

 and a skeleton was found previous to this on the rocks near the lighthouse. 

 They were occasionally seen at Siskowit during August, usually flying 

 overhead or at some natural clearing near the beach. At Washington 

 Harbor they were only visitors, coming every now and then to the clearings 

 where they fed on grasshoppers w^hich were so abundant. They were 

 very wary. While exploring the ruins of the deserted town near the head 

 of Siskowit Bay, on September 10, a nest of the Northern Raven was found 

 in the old stamp mill. It was placed in the small hollow formerly occupied 

 by the metal plate upon which the head of the stamp fell. The side walls 

 of the stamp mill are broken down in places so that the entrance to the in- 

 terior was simple. The nest was about four feet square and the deepest 

 part about a foot deep, and was composed of sticks varying in size from 

 a quarter inch to three-quarters in diameter, and a foot to three feet long. 

 Several tail-feathers of the Raven were found in different layers of the nest, 

 showing that in all probability the mass was the accumulation of several 

 years of nest-building and repairing. Smaller feathers were scattered about 

 the nest and floor. The lining consisted of small sticks and roots loosely 

 laid together, but forming quite a compact mass in connection with the 

 other material. The floor of the building was strewn with pellets con- 

 sisting principally of fishbones, skeletons of small mice, and some insect 

 remains. Under some of the rafters this had accumulated to such an extent 

 that the deposit was four or five inches in depth. In places it was weathered 

 so badly that it appeared simply as a mass of brownish earth" (Adams' 

 Rep., Mich. Geol. Surv., 1908, pp. 361-362). 



In other parts of the country the Raven frequently nests on cliffs and 

 ledges of rock, but where such locations are not to be had it contents itself 

 with tall trees, in which it builds a bulky nest, similar to that of the Crow, 

 and usually rears its young in safety. According to Bendire the number 

 of eggs varies from five to seven, sets of five and six being most common. 

 The eggs have a ground color of pale pea-green, drab, or greenish-olive, 

 and are unusually thickly and heavily spotted with different shades of 

 brown, lavender and drab. The average size is 1.95 by 1.36 inches. 



Probably the food of the Raven is almost as varied as that of the Ciow, 

 yet it is not known to attack cultivated crops of any kind, and the belief 

 that it is destructive to young birds, eggs and game is rather an inference 

 than the result of oliservation. At all events its scarcity at the present 

 time precludes the possibility of its doing serious injury of this kind any- 

 where. Possibly it may hang about the nesting places of the gulls and 

 terns in our northern waters, and do some mischief by robbing nests, but 

 no actual observations of such piracy have come to our knowledge. 



The ordinary call note, according to Bendire, is "craack-craak" varied 

 sometimes by a deep grunting "kocrr-koerr," and again by a "clucking, 



