WHITE-NECKED RAVEN 221 



They are usually quite tame and unsuspicious, paying little or no attention to 

 a man on horseback or a wagon passing by; but after being shot at a few times 

 soon become very wary and hard to approach, and as they are usually out on 

 the open prairie it is an easy matter for them to keep out of the way. On one 

 occasion I approached a flock of thirty or forty busily engaged in catching grass- 

 hoppers, and as they began to leave long before I arrived within gunshot, I 

 thought to try an experiment; wondering if an appeal to their curiosity might 

 not be as successful as it usually was with jays. Tying a stone in the comer of a 

 red bandana handkerchief, I tossed it high into the air, and the result far exceeded 

 my expectations; for though standing in plain sight, they came headlong to 

 see what it was that had fluttered to the ground, and from that time on I had no 

 difficulty in securing White-necked Ravens. When one or more were shot out of 

 a flock the remainder did not fly off and alight again, but usually circled about, 

 keeping in rather a compact body and ascending higher and higher; not de- 

 scending to the ground for a considerable length of time, and usually a long 

 ways off. * * * 



In the spring of 1903, I noticed a place on the plains some eight or ten miles 

 from the mountains, where some species of bird was evidently roosting in large 

 numbers. The plains are covered with brush at this point, mostly scrubby mes- 

 quite, and for a space some two hundred yards long and twenty-five or thirty 

 yards wide the trees were almost destroyed by the use to which they had been 

 put. The ground beneath was inches deep with excreta, and the trunks and 

 branches of the trees were white with the same; while they were almost totally 

 denuded of leaves, except at the extreme top where a little green still lingered. 

 In many cases the limbs were broken down by tlie weight of the birds. From the 

 appearance of the excreta it was evidently a large species of bird that was roost- 

 ing there, and as on a careful examination none but raven feathers could be found 

 lying about, I came to the conclusion that it was they that were using the place, 

 though I never found them roosting in such large mmibers in any one place 

 before. 



William Beebe (1905) thus describes the coming of a vast horde 

 of these ravens to roost in a canyon in Mexico : 



And now as the sun's disk silhouettes the upraised arms of an organ cactus 

 on the opposite summit, scattered squads of another army of birds appear and focus 

 to their nightly rendezvous — the White-necked Ravens of the whole world seem 

 to be passing, so great are their numbers. As far as the eye can see, each side 

 of the canyon gives up its complement of black forms; one straggling ahead 

 uttering now and then a deep, hoarse-voiced croak. From all the neighbouring 

 country they pour in, passing low before us, one and all disappearing in the 

 black depths of a narrow, boulder-framed gorge. A raven comes circling down 

 from above and instantly draws our eye to what we have not noticed before, a 

 vast black cloud of the birds soaring above the barranca with all the grace of 

 flight of vultures. The cloud descends, draws in upon itself, and, becoming 

 funnel-shaped, sifts slowly through the twilight into the gorge where the great 

 brotherhood of ravens is united and at rest. 



Bradford Torrey (1904) writes amusingly of being "mobbed" by a 

 flock of these ravens near Tucson, Ariz. As he approached a lonely 

 ranch a flock of these birds "rose from the scrub not far in advance, 

 with the invariable hoarse chorus of quark, quark" He continues: 



