3i6 



THE MUSEUM. 



forty-five feet up. The parent bird 

 ■was sitting, and strange to say, was 

 entirely visible from where I stood. 

 Thinking this was very peculiar, I re- 

 solved to investigate. Upon climbing 

 to the nest, I found that by some 

 means, probably a heavy wind, it had 

 become dislodged and had turned al- 

 most completely on its side, the eggs 

 just being held in by the rim of the 

 nest. The bird had to sit with one 

 side against the bottom of the nest, 

 with the other side exposed." 



Height. — The distance from the 

 ground, at which the nest is placed, 

 varies from four to over one hundred 

 feet. Where the birds are unmolested, 

 they build remarkably near the ground, 

 for so large and naturally suspicious 

 bird. Where they are persecuted and 

 continually hunted, the instinct of self- 

 preservation, with which they are most 

 certainly highly endowed, prompts 

 them to build in pratically inaccessible 

 trees, in many cases. Such trees as 

 shelbark hickory, sycamore, large 

 crooked black oaks, trees over-looking 

 precipices or deep water, are often 

 very difficult to climb, and the Crows 

 often build their nests at a great 

 height in those trees. Where the 

 bird chooses an uninhabited island, an 

 unfrequented swamp or the deep 

 woods for breeding purposes, the nest 

 is usually placed much nearer the 

 ground than it would otherwise be. 

 On the whole, mankind exercises more 

 influence over this than is generally 

 known. The average height through- 

 out the country is about forty-five feet. 

 Minnesota, North Dakota, Manitoba 

 are but thinly settled, and the average 

 height from the ground is found to be 

 only twenty feet. The soil of the 

 Eastern states is in a high state of 



cultivation, and the New England 

 farmer looks with an unkindly eye at 

 the depredations of this black-feather- 

 ed bird. His search for food is inter- 

 pretated as a raid which must be re- 

 sisted by force of arms; hence the 

 bird becomes shyer and builds as high 

 up as it is possible to do. The data 

 before me gives an average of sixty 

 feet above the ground. 



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