NORTHERN RAVEN 189 



weeks. Harlow (1922) says that during incubation "the male feeds 

 the female upon the nest but does not as a rule sit upon the eggs 

 except in cold stormy weather when the female leaves the nest for food." 



Dr. Dickey says in his notes: "When the eggshells curl and burst, 

 the infants squirm in the cup of the nest. They are weak organisms, 

 streaked with orange, yellow, and dusky and having areas of dusky 

 gray down upon them. They are gorged with food periodically, about 

 every half hour during daylight hours, by both male and female parents. 

 Thus they grow fast and within five days disclose bands of slate-blue 

 pinfeather shafts upon their wings and tails, as well as in stripes on 

 their breast and sides. The pinfeather shafts then disintegrate and 

 scatter the deciduous scales; these fall into the nest and spot its rim. 

 Thus the dull, lusterless first feathers appear; they almost conceal the 

 bare skin coloration. Gradually the entire pinfeather scabbards dis- 

 integrate and the first plumage dominates." 



W. Bryant Tyrrell has sent me some notes on two nests, found on 

 ledges in Shenandoah National Park, Va. In one of these the young 

 were just hatched on March 26, 1939, and were well feathered on 

 April 23. He says that the young "stay in the nest four or five weeks, 

 though the adults have to look after and feed them for some time after 

 their leaving the nest." 



Young ravens, during their first summer at least, are often absurdly 

 tame. Langdon Gibson (1922) says that young birds that he observed 

 in Greenland "were trusting and inquisitive. At our boat camp in 

 August, 1891, on Hakluyt Island, some young birds alighting on the 

 flat shelving rocks on which we were cooking our evening meal, liter- 

 ally walked into camp, and at distances of no more than fifteen feet, 

 ate the entrails of Guillemots that we tossed to them. We found them 

 playful and at the expense of 'J^ck,' a Newfoundland dog, amused 

 themselves by leading him a chase. The birds would allow 'Jack' to 

 approach within a few feet and then with a flop or a hop, would keep 

 just out of his reach." 



Theed Pearse tells me that on Vancouver Island young ravens are 

 very unsuspicious, settling on nearby low trees and gurgling, and allow- 

 ing approach to within 25 or 30 feet, or flying over within easy gun- 

 shot range. 



Young birds, taken from the nest shortly before they reach the flight 

 stage and reared in captivity, make interesting and amusing pets, much 

 like young crows in behavior. 



Plumages. — Two young ravens that I found in a nest on the coast of 

 Maine were about as large as pigeons; they had evidently been hatched 

 blind and naked, for their eyes were not quite open, and they had 



