WHITE-NECKED RAVEN 217 



composed of thorny twigs, while the inner parts are lined with cattle 

 hair, rabbit fur, and frequently with pieces of rabbit skin, wool, dry 

 Cottonwood bark, grass, or tree moss, according to locality. This lining 

 is frequently well quilted and again apparently thrown in loose. 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 nests that we examined were rather loosely built of large sticks 

 externally, but the inner cup was deeply hollowed, compactly made, and 

 smoothly lined with strips of inner bark, cow's hair, wool, and occa- 

 sionally a few rags. A typical nest measured 20 inches in outside 

 diameter, and the inner cavity was 8 inches in diameter and 5 inches 

 deep. 



In addition to the sites mentioned above, nests have been found in 

 low mesquite bushes 4 feet from the ground, in walnut trees, cotton- 

 woods, palo verdes, tall tree yuccas, and giant cactus, as well as on 

 telegraph poles, or windmill towers, or on almost any structure that 

 will hold them. 



Mr. Brandt (1940) writes of their nest-building: 



As nearly as we could ascertain, the female does all the carpentry, but her 

 glossy mate escorts her back and forth, strutting, full-chested, about her, puffing 

 out his throat and uttering purring croaks of encouragement. She seems to pay 

 not the least bit of attention to him, but hurries on with her building, inter- 

 lacing the sticks and then adding thereto, in the base, a binding mat of grasses, 

 rootlets, pieces of rope, newspapers, or other handy trash. She proceeds then to 

 elevate the outer wall with well chosen sticks and at the same time raises the 

 soft inner lining until a deep cup is formed, usually finished with cow or horse 

 hair, though rabbit fur likewise is favored. The bird molds the basin of the 

 nest with her breast, pushing, prodding, and pounding with sharp movements, 

 all the while snuggling down into the bowl. ♦ ♦ * In one case, in Arizona, a nest 

 was found in the process of being colorfully decorated with the black and white 

 fur of the skunk, and the very air was redolent of that fact, A few hundred 

 feet away we came upon the odoriferous carcass of the former owner of that 

 fur with its back cleanly plucked. In the More museum are three ravens' nests 

 made entirely of rusty wire strands instead of sticks, and these have been wound 

 into a rather neat, presentable, wire basket, proving the dexterity of this in- 

 genious bird. 



The white-necked raven is a late breeder. We found our first eggs 

 on May 29, and some new nests were still empty at that date. Out of 

 66 records mentioned by Bendire (1895) the earliest is May 6. "Only 

 twelve other sets were recorded for May, and these usually in the 

 latter part of the month. All the remaining sets were taken in June, 

 and fully half of these after the middle of that month. * * * I can only 

 account for the remarkably late nesting of this species by the fact that 



