NORTHERN RAVEN 183 



in the evening seemed to be harried more persistently than in chases at 

 other times of the day. 



DISTRIBUTION 



Range. — Confined to CaUfornia; nonmigratory. 



The range of the yellow-biiled magpie extends north in the Sacra- 

 mento Valley to Redding and Anderson. To the east it is found t(j 

 Smartsville, Placerville, Hornitos, casually Dunlap, and Three Rivers. 

 The southern limits of its range are in the vicinity of Santa Paul:', 

 Santa Barbara, and the Santa Ynez River. West to San Luis Obispo, 

 Paso Robles, and Monterey. 



Egg dates. — California: 112 records, March 9 to June 2; 56 records. 

 April 9 to 22, indicating the height of the season. 



CORVUS CORAX PRINCIPALIS Ridgway 



NORTHERN RAVEN 



Plates 27-34 



HABITS 



The raven is a cosmopolitan species, widely distributed over all the 

 continents of the Northern Hemisphere; it has been separated into 

 several subspecies, only two of which are recognized as North Aniericati. 

 The range of this subspecies extends, according to the 1931 Check-list, 

 from the Arctic regions in "northwestern Alaska, Melville Island, 

 northern Ellesmere Island, and northern Greenland south to Washing- 

 ton, central Minnesota, Michigan, coast region of New Jersey (for- 

 merly), and Virginia, and in the higher Alleghanies to Georgia." This 

 seems like a very extended and rather unusual distribution and suggests 

 that Dr. H. C. Oberholser (1918) might be justified in giving the name 

 C c. enrophilus to the bird he described from the Eastern United States. 



The haunts of ravens and their behavior vary greatly in different por- 

 tions of their range, depending on where they can most easily find their 

 food and where they are least likely to be disturbed. In the far north 

 they range widely over the open treeless tundra, along the seacoast and 

 the banks of rivers, hunting for the carcasses of animals slain by hunters 

 and the remains of sea-animal life washed up by the storms, or stealing 

 the bait from fox traps ; here they are also common about the Hudson's 

 Bay Co. stations and the camps and villages of the natives, where they 

 can usually find scraps and are not molested. 



When we stopped for supplies at Ketchikan in southern Alaska, we 

 found ravens very common and familiar. They came flocking down from 

 the heavily forested mountains back of the town to compete with the 

 gulls and crows for the garbage thrown out on the shore. They seemed 



