70 BUILDS A DOMED NEST. 
discordant babel of sounds as their friends and 
companions the barkers, but caw much as do 
our jackdaws. 
The seacoast is abandoned when the breeding- 
time arrives, early in May, when they resort in 
pairs to the interior; selecting a patch of open 
prairie, where there are streams and lakes, and 
the wild crab-apple and white-thorn grows, in 
which they build nests precisely like that of the 
magpie, arched over the top with sticks. The 
bird enters by a hole on one side, but leaves by 
an exit-hole on the opposite. The inside is plas- 
tered with mud; a few grass-stalks strewn loosely 
on the bottom keep the eggs from rolling. This 
is so marked a difference to the Barking Crow’s 
nesting, as in itself to be a specific distinction. 
The eggs are lighter in the blotching, and much 
smaller. J examined great numbers of nests at 
this prairie, and on the Columbia, but invariably 
found the same habit of doming prevailed. After 
nesting, they return with the young to the sea- 
coasts, and remain in large flocks, often asso- 
ciated with the Barking Crows, until nesting- 
time comes again. During their sojourn inland, 
their food consists principally of small reptiles, 
freshwater molluscs, or grubs; and IJ have seen 
them catch butterflies flying near their nests, 
