264 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



with the surfac.e of the ground, and it was well filled with grass, weeds 

 and small pieces of sage and willow. The nest had an outside rim of 

 weeds, sage and willow twigs and a few small sticks and was lined with 

 strips from weeds and with cow's hair. The general construction and 

 bulk of the nest was about the same as any tree nest of the species. 

 A few larger sticks and twigs were scattered around on the ground 

 surrounding the nest. This nest contained seven eggs." 



W. E. Griffee writes to me from Oregon that nests he found near 

 Portland were mostly in "trees along the sloughs on the Inverness 

 Golf Course, where the crows, like other birds, are protected." On 

 April 25 and 26, 1940, in Lake County, east of the Cascades, he col- 

 lected seven sets "from scrubby willow cjumps out in the Chewaucan 

 Marsh," and thinks he could have taken 30 or 40 more sets there in 

 those two days, if he had concentrated on them. There must have been 

 a large concentration of breeding crows in that region. A still larger 

 concentration is mentioned by Leon L. Gardner (1926) in Klickitat 

 County, Wash. On Rock Creek, crows were found at their noon 

 siesta, and many old nests were located with an abundance of evidence 

 in feathers and droppings that for miles up and down the creek a vast 

 rookery existed. Although this was in August, when the crows had 

 congregated to feast in the almond and apricot orchards, many of the 

 vast hordes referred to later probably nested in that rookery where the 

 nests were seen. 



J. A. Munro has sent me the data for 14 nests, found in the brush 

 along the creek near Okanagan Landing, British Columbia; 10 of these 

 were in willows, and one each in an alder, a blackhaw, and a poplar; 

 the heights from the ground varied from 10 to 20 feet. 



Eggs. — Five or six eggs form the usual set for the western crow, 

 but four or seven are often laid, and as many as eight or even nine have 

 been recorded. J. G. Suthard tells me that he once found a set of nine 

 eggs, eight intact and one broken. "The ninth tgg had been broken 

 and the shell telescoped onto another egg, to whic.h it was firmly at- 

 tached by the dried yolk and albumen. All the eggs were similar in 

 size and shape." Three other nests in the vicinity were examined, in 

 which the "eggs were definitely different from this set." 



The eggs of the western crow are similar to those of the eastern 

 crow, except in average size. The measurements of 40 eggs in the 

 United States National Museum average 41.1 by 28.8 millimeters; 

 the eggs showing the four extremes measure 46.2 by 31.2, 44.7 by 31.5, 

 35.8 by 26.4. and 37.7 by 24.4 millimeters. 



Food. — Like other crows, the western subspecies is omnivorous; it 

 probably does some good in the destruction of harmful insects and 



