EASTERN CROW 231 



food supply, in the shape of a dead cow, within twenty-five yards may 

 have been the reason for the choice of nesting site. We cut down the 

 nest, which contained three eggs, newly laid, and photographed it, leav- 

 ing it not more than two feet from the ground, and inclined at an angle 

 of about 55 degrees. We removed the eggs. ♦ * * Judge of our surprise, 

 on re-visiting the nest on June 1 to find four new eggs. * * * It seemed 

 to us very unusual for the Crows to re-occupy the nest especially when 

 so close to the ground and at such an angle." 



Occasionally crows select sites that are an extreme departure from 

 the usual situations. Harold M. Holland in correspondence states that 

 a pair nested in the hollow of an old stub located in a wooded tract in 

 Knox County, 111. They nested in this place for at least three seasons 

 in preference to other numerous apparently suitable locations offered by 

 the surrounding woods. Potter (1932) states that a pair of crows 

 remodeled the top of a disused magpie habitation. 



Bradshaw (1930) comments on unusual nesting sites he found in 

 Saskatchewan as follows: "In many treeless sections of the prairie, 

 such as Big Quill Lake, crows have been found nesting on the cross- 

 arms of telephone poles. In such cases one usually finds nearby a marsh 

 well-stocked with ducks, coots, rails, grebes, and other marsh-loving 

 birds. Probably the easy available food supply is the principal factor for 

 the crow locating in such areas. * * * 



"The most unique nesting site of the crow encountered was one found 

 on the top of a chimney of a country church, between the towns of Pense 

 and Lumsden." On the same road a pair of crows built their nest in a 

 chimney of an abandoned house. In both cases, however, there were 

 plenty of trees that the crows might have chosen for their nests. 



Dr. S. S. Dickey, who has made extensive observations of crows in 

 Pennsylvania during the nesting season, contributes the following ob- 

 servations made of the procedure of nest-building: "The female de- 

 scended into the underwoods or Vvould move along branches of the trees 

 to masses of twigs. She would take one of them into her beak, twist it 

 loose from its fastenings, and hurry with it to the site she had chosen 

 for her nest. At first she tended to drop sticks en route, or else would 

 proceed awkwardly in placing them in a fork or crotch. She dropped 

 many sticks, causing a veritable heap of rubbish near the base of the 

 nesting tree. Finally after many trials she managed to arrange a loose 

 array of sticks in the base of the fork. Most of the work was done 

 in the morning hours between 7 and 11 o'clock. Thereafter she ap- 

 peared to weary and would fly away in company with the male in search 

 of food. Late in the afternoon and shortly before dusk she proceeded 

 again to work on her nest. The walls grew consecutively from coarse 



