270 NOTES ON THE 



By the twentieth of April the nests are generally finished 

 and incubation fairly entered upon. The nest is placed in the 

 fork of a tall tree, pine where that kind of timber grows, and 

 consists of a thick course of sticks and twigs, overlaid by 

 moss, barks of different kinds, or dried grass, and well lined 

 with bark and leaves. Four eggs is usually the complement, 

 colored some shade of green and covered with splotches of 

 different shades of brown, and dusky. One brood only is 

 reared. 



I am afraid I cannot add anything to the welfare of this 

 bird economically considered. The weight of testimony is all 

 against him. He must understand that the waste places of the 

 earth only are voted him henceforth and forever. In common 

 with all of the other members of the family he has got a bad 

 name. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill much compressed; curved from the base, rather more 

 so towards the tip; incumbent feathers of nostrils reach half 

 the distance from the base of the bill to the end of the lower 

 mandible, and not quite half way to that of the upper; fourth 

 quill longest, second shorter than sixth, first shorter than 

 ninth; glossy black with violet reflections, even on the belly; 

 tarsus longer than the middle toe and claw and has eight 

 scales anteriorly; the lateral toes are very nearly equal; the 

 inner claw the larger and reaching to the base of the middle 

 claw; the webs of the throat feather are a little loose, but lie 

 quite smoothly without the pointed, lanceolate character seen 

 in the ravens. 



Length, 19 to 20; wing, 13 to 13.5; tail, 8. 



Habitat, North America from fur countries to Mexico. 



COEVUS OSSIFRAGUS Wilson. (490.) 



FISH CJROW. 



The appearance of this species in Minnesota of course was 

 accidental. On September 21st, 1869, I was driving in the 

 vicinity of this city near a small lake, when a flock of what I 

 calculated were not less than a hundred and fifty crows passed 

 over me from the north and lighted on a plowed field close to 

 the road along which I was driving. Several of our common 

 crows were feeding on the same field, which possibly was the 

 immediate cause of their alighting, but the contrast in size 

 arrested my attention before they stopped their flight. The 

 most ordinary observer could not have failed to see the differ- 

 ence in their sizes. Having my field glass with me I stopped 



