190 BULLiiilN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



developed only a scanty growth of grayish-brown down on the dorsal 

 tract. They were not attractive objects; their abdomens were fat and 

 distended, as if they had been well fed; and their great, gaping, red 

 mouths were wide open, as they stretched up their heavy heads on 

 their weak and shaky necks. 



The development of the plumage is referred to above. The juvenal 

 plumage is practically fully acquired, with most of the natal down 

 rubbed off, before the young bird leaves the nest. In the full juvenal 

 plumage, the wings and the tail are much like those of the adult, cjear 

 lustrous black with greenish and purplish reflections, but the contour 

 plumage of the head and body is dull brownish black, without any 

 metallic luster. A partial postjuvenal molt, involving the contour plum- 

 age and the lesser wing coverts, but not the rest of the wings and tail, 

 occurs in summer, beginning in July or earlier; this molt is sometimes 

 completed in July and sometimes not until August or early in September. 

 This produces a first winter plumage that is practically adult, full lus- 

 trous black, with the peculiar shaggy and attenuated feathers on the 

 throat. Adults have a complete postnuptial molt in summer and early 

 in fall, apparently at about the same time as the young birds; I have 

 two adults in my collection, from Alaska, that were in full molt, body, 

 wings, and tail, on June 11; and in some cases the molt is not com- 

 pleted until October. The sexes are alike in all plumages. Spring birds 

 show some signs of wear and fading, but apparently no molt. Theed 

 Pearse tells me that molting is very irregular and that he has seen 

 adults molting their primaries as early as May 15 and others still molt- 

 ing as late as October 21. 



Food. — The northern raven is one of our most omnivorous birds and 

 a filthy feeder. Almost any kind of animal food that it can catch, kill, 

 or find is grist to its mill. In the far north, especially in winter, it 

 must live largely on carrion, the carcasses of various animals that it 

 finds c.ast up on the shores. Dr. Dickey was told that in the dead of 

 winter, when hard pressed for food, ravens will follow the dog teams 

 and fight for the steaming dung as soon as dropped by the dogs. 



Dr. George M. Sutton (1932) v/rites of their winter feeding habits 

 on Southampton Island : "Rarely, if ever, did they prey upon ptarmigans 

 or Arctic Hares, though they were known to pursue and even occasion- 

 ally to wait for lemmings ; but their principal food appeared to be the 

 carcasses of walruses, seals, or whales, which were located and regu- 

 larly fed upon before the winter set in. A dead whale thus sometimes 

 furnishes a flock of ravens sustenance for the winter, after the gulls 

 have departed and the Polar Bears gone to sleep. In patrolling their 

 range they keep an eye open for all seals killed at the edge of the floe. 



