260 BULLETIN 191, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



feed along with the herons, wood ibises, egrets, and buzzards on the 

 dead and dying small fry left as the pools dry up. They are destructive 

 to other birds' nests, especially killdeers and terns, where they nest 

 along the river on sand bars. I have seen the crow destroying the 

 nests of terns, as described in a short article in The Oologist for February 

 1939, page 24." 



Albert J. Kirn tells me that in Texas he has seen crows harassed 

 by a marsh hawk and has also seen a crow attacking a marsh hawk. 

 In southern and eastern Texas he finds them fairly common, mostly in 

 river bottom woods, but thinks that the resident birds do not range 

 very far west in the State. 



The measurements of 40 eggs of the southern crow in the United 

 States National Museum average 41.4 by 28.9 millimeters; the eggs 

 showing the four extremes measure 47.3 by 30.2, 42.9 by 31.2, and 35.8 

 by 20.2 millimeters. 



Dr. Walter P. Taylor tells me that he called up a crow that came 

 within 150 feet of him and sat in the top of a tree. To his surprise 

 "it began to sing. One would never suspect that such tender notes 

 could come from the raucous throat of a crow. The notes resemble 

 somewhat the clucking of a rooster when he is calling hens to some 

 dainty morsel he has found. The crow's song is more varied, however ; 

 sometimes he adds a high-pitched tone, and then again continues with 

 his clucj<ing and gurgling noises." 



CORVUS BRACHYRHYNCHOS PASCUUS Coue« 



FLORIDA CROW 

 HABITS 



The Florida crow is smaller than the eastern crow, except for its 

 bill and feet, which are relatively larger and heavier. It is somewhat 

 larger than the southern crow (paulus), which has a smaller and 

 slenderer bill. 



The Florida crow (pascuus) is generally distributed over peninsular 

 Florida, except in the northwestern part, west of the Aucilla River; 

 it apparently intergrades with paulus somewhere in the region of St. 

 Marks. I have met with it in various parts of the State but found it 

 nowhere especially abundant, much less common, in fact, than crows 

 are in many other parts of the United States. We found it most com- 

 monly in the flat pine woods, especially about the small cypress swamps, 

 but saw it also in the mixed oak and palmetto hammocks and on the 

 prairies. 



Nesting. — What few nests we saw were in the thick groves of tall, 



