AMERICAN RAVEN 205 



that he sent me, five of the nests were in trees. Ravens often build 

 their nests on cHffs overhanging the seacoast. A. D. DuBois sends me 

 the data on a nest in San Diego County that was 20 feet below the top 

 of a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean ; it was in a pothole, about 18 

 inches back and well protec.ted from the weather; it was composed of 

 sticks and lined with cow's and skunk's hair. W. E. Griffee (MS.) 

 says that "occasional pairs of ravens nest in the western Oregon valleys 

 and they occur more frequently along the coast, but the heavy timber 

 west of the Cascade Mountains makes these occasional pairs decidedly 

 inconspicuous." Most of his experience with ravens has been east of 

 the Cascades, where, he says, a large majority of them "nest in rimrocks, 

 usually low rims not over 50 feet high." But he has also found their 

 nests in boxelder, locust, juniper, poplar, and willow trees. 



Old ravens' nests are often used by hawks and owls. I took my first 

 and only set of prairie-falcon eggs from the remains of an old raven's 

 nest, and I have found red-tailed hawks and horned owls appropriating 

 ravens' nests that were still in good condition. It is a common occur- 

 rence to find the ravens and falcons nesting in the same canyon, or on 

 the same cliff, and not far apart ; it seems to be a sort of tradition that 

 where one is found the other will be found in the vicinity, but Mr. 

 Griffee, who has had considerable experience with both, thinks that they 

 nest together only where suitable sites are scarce; and he mentions two 

 cases where ravens formerly nested close to falcons and are now nesting 

 in trees at some distance. This community of interest is not due to 

 any affection between the species, as is shown by the spirited encounters 

 that sometimes occur between them. 



Bowles and Decker (1930) give an interesting account of the nesting 

 of this raven on, or in, man-made structures in a deserted agricultural 

 community between the Yakima and Columbia Rivers in Washington : 



In travelling over many miles of this country we have seen the following 

 varieties of nesting sites : Several different parts of windmills ; rafters in small 

 one-room shacks ; in barns ; in various places in houses ; one a few feet up in a 

 small tree; and one on top of a bookcase in a school house. ♦ * ♦ Only one nest 

 was built on the outside of a house, this being placed on a porch directly above 

 a small bay window. * * * In the low, river country, where natural sites are 

 scarce, we have found the nests on high tension poles, oil derricks, telegraph 

 poles, and on the beam of a railroad bridge. One of the last mentioned was only 

 twelve feet from the ground and two feet below the rails. [A freight train 

 rumbling over this bridge did not cause the bird to leave its nest.] 



Another interesting proof that these birds do not mind disturbance in and 

 around the nest was where a windmill had been used as a site. For some strange 

 reason the nest had been built around the plunging rod, which, the mill being in 

 working order, went up and down through the outer wall of the nest whenever 

 the wind happened to be blowing. * ♦ * 



