NORTHWESTERN CROW 269 



ing toward the south, which movement continued daily until compara- 

 tively few remained on October 15, when our party left the field." 



Winter. — Some western crows spend the winter in the northern parts 

 of their range, for J. A. Munro tells me that sometimes large flocks are 

 seen in the vicinity of Okanagan Landing, British Columbia, in winter. 

 "They are extremely local in their feeding habits during winter, remain- 

 ing in the vicinity of slaughterhouses, or other places where food is 

 easily obtainable, and returning to the same roost, often several miles 

 away, every evening." 



The winter population of crows in Oklahoma, on which so much de- 

 structive bombing has been done, seems to consist largely of crows 

 from farther north. 



Kalmbach and Aldous (1940) report that "the banding of 714 Crows 

 in south central Oklahoma during the winter of 1935-36 has yielded, 

 during the three and one-half years following their release, 143 returns, 

 slightly more than 20 percent of the birds banded." They say: 



Analysis of these returns shows that, of the 65 Crows recovered during the 

 breeding and rearing season (April 1 to August 31), 49 (75 per cent) were killed 

 in the Prairie Provinces of Canada. The dates and locations of numerous other 

 returns recorded in the states north of Oklahoma indicate that many others of this 

 group of Crows may have been on their way to or from Canadian breeding 

 grounds. During this same period of the year not one of the winter-banded 

 Crows was recovered in Oklahoma, clearly indicating that winter Crow control 

 in Oklahoma can have little or no effect on nesting upland game or insectivorous 

 birds of that state. 



Although winter Crow control in Oklahoma is destined to remove some birds 

 that would enter the problem of Crow-waterfowl relationships in the Canadian 

 provinces, the effect of this control is certain to be much 'diluted' if the results 

 are to be judged in a continental perspective. This comes about because only a 

 portion of the Crows in Canada can be classed as duck-egg predators, and because 

 the Crow, in what might be termed destructive abundance, occupies possibly only 

 a sixth of the duck-nesting area of Canada and Alaska. 



CORVUS CAURINUS Baird 



NORTHWESTERN CROW 



HABITS 



The crows of the Northwest coast from the Alaska Peninsula and 

 Kodiak Island southward as far as the Puget Sound region of Wash- 

 ington were originally described as a distinct species, largely on account 

 of their coastwise habitat and a somewhat different voice. Many modern 

 writers, including the framers of the 1910 Check-list, have listed Corvus 

 caurinus as a species. But it was reduced to the rank of a subspecies 

 in the 1931 Check-list; it will now be restored to full specific rank. 



It is similar in appearance to hesperis but is .smaller, with relatively 

 stnaller feet. 



