Mr. Elliott Coues on Picicorvus columbianus. 55 



covered peaks 3000 feet above us." The few peaks that exceed 

 10,000 feet are not so much higher that we may not reasonably 

 suppose them to be visited (sometimes, at any rate) by Clarke's 

 Crow, in which we most certainly recognize one of the most 

 thoroughly alpine of our birds. The author just quoted has, 

 in the same place, indicated, on the other hand, the usual lowest 

 descent of the species, which never, where he saw it, descended "to 

 a lower altitude than about 4000 feet." It does, however, come 

 somewhat further down : the Fort-Kearney citation, just given, 

 is an instance of this; and others could be mentioned: thus 

 Fort Colville, near where Mr. Lord found the bird breeding, is 

 only 2800 feet above sea-level, according to official reports. 

 Probably this is somewhat exceptional, and at any rate must be 

 taken in connexion with the high latitude of the locality (48° 

 41' N.). On the whole, I should not be inclined to place the 

 usual range, in an average latitude, lower than 4000 feet, as 

 given by Dr. Newberi'y. In a word, Clarke's Crow is emphati- 

 cally a bird of the coniferous zone of vegetation ; its range is 

 to be mapped out rather with reference to this than to either 

 altitude or latitude; for these are complementary to each other, 

 zoologically speaking, and within its own faunal area it has 

 occurred in so many different localities that we may fairly con- 

 sider its range coextensive with pine-forests. 



Like others of its family, of hardy nature, and subsisting 

 vipon substances procurable at all seasons, Clarke's Crow is not a 

 migrant in the ordinary sense of the wox'd ; that is to say, it 

 does not pass regularly north and south at stated intervals : col- 

 lectively, indeed, the species may be termed stationary ; but it by 

 no means follows that all the individuals that compose it are 

 localized. On the contrary, it is a restless bird, scurrying about 

 the mountains, appearing and disappearing irregularly, and 

 sometimes unaccountably, few special localities probably, if 

 any, seeing it the year round. The nearest approach to regu- 

 larity of movement that we can make out seems to be its flying 

 doivn the mountains at the approach of rigorous weather, in lieu 

 of I'eti'eating southward, and its returning in spring to elevated 

 places. This may be pretty safely asserted for latitudes from 

 45° southward, although, as we have seen, it breeds very low 



