224 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



alive in large cage traps of the type known as the Australian crow' trap 

 that have demonstrated their efficiency on various occasions (fig. 12). 

 One trap that was operated for 12 days in November caught 512 white- 

 necked ravens; and 4 traps, used at one place from September 1934 

 until the following spring, caught 10,000." 



Enemies. — According to Mrs. Bailey (1928) this raven has some 

 friends and some enemies among the agriculturalists in New Mexico. 

 One man stated that every raven was worth a dollar to him, as without 

 the ravens it would be impossible to raise a crop of alfalfa seed, for 

 they are the only control they have for the "conchuela," an insect of the 

 stink-bug family; any one of his hands found shooting a raven was fired 

 then and there. In another place the ravens were reported as saving 

 the hay crop by feeding on the alfalfa caterpillar. Still another man 

 was down on the ravens because during the melon season they destroyed 

 $25 worth of cantaloupes and truck crops a day. The chances are that 

 after balancing all the evidence it will be found that the ravens do more 

 good than harm and should not be molested, except in a few special cases. 

 Vernon Bailey (1903) writes: 



Out in one of the driest, hottest valleys of the Great Bend country of western 

 Texas a pair of big Mexican ravens came beating over the valley ahead of our 

 outfit one day, when they were suddenly attacked by two pair of the smaller, 

 quicker, white-necked ravens. The attack was vigorous, not to say vicious, with 

 quick repeated blows and pecks till the feathers flew. From start to finish the 

 big birds sought only to escape, but this seemed impossible. They pounded the 

 air in vain effort to out-fly their tormentors, dove to the ground but were 

 forced to take wing again, circled and beat and tacked to no purpose, and finally 

 began mounting steadily in big circles, taking their punishment as they went, 

 the smaller birds keeping above and beating down on them in succession till 

 all were specks in the sky, and finally lost to view. Such a drubbing I never 

 saw a smaller bird inflict on a larger, before or since, and it was probably well 

 deserved. The nests of the white-necked ravens are unprotected from above and 

 eggs are said to be a delicacy to any raven. 



FtUl. — After the young birds are strong on the wing, these ravens 

 gather in immense flocks and travel about over the country, visiting 

 the most likely feeding places and gradually drifting southward. F. C. 

 Willard (1912) witnessed a heavy migration early in November in 

 Cochise County, Ariz.; this happened just before a very severe winter, 

 during which these ravens were entirely absent from that section. They 

 migrated in one immense flock, which "extended over a distance of 

 nearly three miles along the foot hills of the Dragoon Mountains near 

 Gleason in this county. There did not seem to be any regular flight, 

 but a sort of general slow movement to the south. The birds were 

 present in many thousands and it was two days before the last stragglers 

 disappeared." 



