THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrfiteci iV[aga;cine of Popular Ornithology. 



Pahlishjed |VIontbW. 



VOI.UMK IV. 



NOVEMBER, 1899. 



Number 3. 



Original Articles. 



BREEDING OF THE FISH CROW IN PENNSYLVANIA. 

 Bv Fkank L. BiKNS, Berw^n, Pa. 



Corviis o.-<si/ra,iiiiS, belong-ing- essentially to the 

 maritime fauna, is hardly accredited as anything- 

 more than a rare migrant or winter visitant to 

 the banks of the Susquehanna river, scarcely 

 north of the Maryland line, and to the Delaware 

 river as far as Homesburg, in so inland a state 

 asPenns^'lvania. While it may breed sparing-h-, 

 and of course locally, in the river bf)rdering 

 counties of Lancaster and Dela\vare, the onh' 

 instance at all specific is the statement b_v Dr. 

 Warren in L'in/s of Pennsylvania. 1890, "that "J. 

 Hoopes Matlack informed me that some years 

 ag-o he found the nest and eg-g-s along- the 

 Brandywine creek, Chester county". 



Therefore it was with much pleasure not un- 

 mixed with surprise that I found the Fish Crow 

 to be a resident and breeder during- the past year, 

 1898, on the slaty ridg-e known as the North 

 Chester Valley Hills, so far from any consid- 

 erable body of water. I first heard its hoarse 

 notes on the 13th and again on the 18th of April, 

 but it was not until the 11th of May that I fully 

 established its identity, and located the nest of 

 a pair not more than a mile from Berwyn. The 

 bird always appears to be making- unsuccessful 

 efforts to free its throat of some obstruction 

 when uttering- its notes, and for a time one is 

 constantly expecting- to hear the comparatively 

 clear and high "caw" of C. a>neri('anus break 

 out. Its notes are coarse and nasal, as well as 

 somewhat flat, when compared to those of the 

 commoner species. Sometimes cai\ more fre- 

 quently cufi, with now and then a cah-ah, and 

 again a koak or koak-ah. 



The female flushed from her nest and two 

 eggs, 32 feet up in a red cedar, close to a wheat 

 field, while I was yet 25 yards distant in the 

 thick wood; and being joined by herniate their 

 croaks issued from the timber beyond. On re- 

 turning to collect the set on the 18th, I was dis- 

 covered while yet some distance from the grove 

 by several of the commoner species with young 

 in the vicinity'. They flew overhead uttering 

 loud protests, and were almost immediately 

 joined by as many as six Fish Crows, easily 

 identified by their smaller size, hoarse notes, 

 and manner of soaring about. I had stirred up 

 a perfect mob, but they kept a good distance 

 above me, safe from the efforts of a shot-gun, 



had I been disposed to use one. Apparentlj' 

 some irate farmer had sufficiently scared them 

 for their own complete safety, as one of the 

 smaller species had several secondaries missing 

 from the right wing. Perhaps the additional 

 four were the young of a previous season. The 

 place is an ideal one for the more timid kind, no 

 dwellings intervening withiii a range of pro- 

 bably- three hundred acres of fields and timber 

 well watered by small streams. 



The nest, which had been vacated at the first 

 alarm, contained five eggs in which incubation 

 had commenced, measuring 1.42 x 1.09, 1.35 x 1.08, 

 1.41 X 1.06, 1.37 X 1.03. 1.27 x 1.00, and are t.vpical 

 in shape and coloration. Thii-t^'-three eggs 

 taken at Avalon Beach, N. J., by Mr. Lionel 

 F. Bowers and the writer some few years ago, 

 average 1.47 / 1.07 to the 1.37 x 1.05 of the above 

 set. The nest rested on a branch and the main 

 stem at the very top of the tree, and outwardly 

 differed but little in measurements and construc- 

 tion from that of the American Crow, except 

 that a layer of earth was absent and a neater 

 appearance was presented. It was composed of 

 coarse twig's, small sticks, strips of inner bark 

 and wild grapevine bark, lined with fine inner 

 bark and wisps of black horse hairs. The inside 

 measured in depth 3.25, diameter 5.50, being thus 

 somewhat less, and the outside measurements — • 

 depth 16.50, diameter 17.75 — were somewhat 

 greater than the average of seven New Jersey 

 nests. 



Later in the month, I discovered the same or 

 another pair inhabiting a piece of timber within 

 a few hundred yards of my home. They were 

 always read^' to take up arms for their larger 

 brethren, and even indignanth' protested against 

 the robbing of a Broad-winged Hawk. This 

 pair were observed daily, particularly early in 

 the morning, from my home, until the middle of 

 June, and a month subsequent when the}' were 

 seen occasionalh-. On the 30th of July the pair 

 appeared with three 3'oung in tow, flying in 

 single file; the old birds croaked to their 3-oung 

 and received replies in the yet imperfect voices 

 of their progeny. As this interesting family 

 had not been molested they came and went with 

 the perfect confidence their beneficial habits 

 entitled them to assume, often alighting on the 



