200 Till- Wir.soK Bulletin, No. 72-:3. 



the same color, but all so minute and microscopic that they are not 

 worthy of a name, but are merely what the Germans so aptly call 

 "Gelehrtenspielereieu." Tlie millennium, however, is still a year 

 or two distant, and up to that time we will have to be contented 

 with merely statins oiu- disappointments and waiting for wiser 

 heads to solve the many ])roblems that vex us and keep us from 

 reaching perfection in our beloved science of ornithology. 



W. F. II. 



Field Notes 



A LiTTi.K IIkip from the Cuows. — It is all very well for tlie East- 

 erner to saunter out into the grove on a mild April morning and 

 mark down this years' crop of Crows" nests, all snuigly outlined 

 against a clear slvy. Be the birds ever so secretive, the stark out- 

 lines of a Crow's nest in crotcli of beech or elm are easy oologicnl 

 marks, especially if set off by a telltale black "handle." But 

 Crows' nests in Western Washington are none of the commonest, 

 and when the birds hide them, as tliey usually do, in the depths of 

 tir trees (and sometimes at forbidding heights) the inquiring bird- 

 man naturally welcomes a little assistance in the search. 



On the "prairies" of Pierce County the Douglas firs renounce 

 their Olympian disdain and present heights that may be scanned by 

 frail mortals not yet equijiiicd with tlying niachincs. But even 

 here the quest is not easy. 'Die firs, though dwarfed in height, 

 are of very stocky growth, and afford eye-proof shelter for even a 

 Crow's nest. A certain stretch of prairie, dotted here and there 

 with fir cluin]is composed of trees from fifty to eighty feet in height, 

 was evidently the breeding liaunt of a small (colony of Western 

 ("'ows {('oiriis bi (ichjirhjiiichoK licxpciis ) . (The iilace is about ten 

 miles from tide water, and the birds are really intermediate in size 

 i)etween ('. h. licfiperis and C. h. cniiriinix. but their voices are clear 

 and their range is strictly inland). 



I had lazily noted the activities of this colony on a previous 

 visit, but I was ill-prepared to hear the insistent hunger cry of a 

 manifest young Crow so early ^n the season, Ajiril is, 1010, pro- 

 ceeding as it did from the to]) of a dense fir tree, one of a grove in 

 which I lay watching for Kinglets. The tree, was screened from 

 view, l)ut I soon located it ]iy tiic sound, and eagerly drank in the 

 ancient wail of the youngster while one of the jiai-ent birds an- 

 swered warily from a distance. 



Tt really was not worth while to <liiub the tree, lint Bird-boy 

 (ornitliohtijiciis s<cini<liis iikij/Iic) was vei'y .nnxious to see a young 

 Crow, and 1 \\vu\ u]). .ludge of my surjirise when a full grown Crow 



