242 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



"usually build it under some high cliff. They make a very large and bulky 

 nest, and, where not disturbed, use it several years in succession. They 

 also breed ^ery early. He once took a nest with eight eggs on the 10th 

 of April, when the snow all around was quite deep. This was sent to 

 the Smithsonian Institution. Its contents nearly filled a bushel basket. 

 He does not regard the Ravens as migratory. Though they are apparently 

 more numerous in winter than in summer, this is probably because they 

 forsake the woods and come about the open fields and the banks of rivers 

 for dead fish, and thus are more noticed. They are very sliy, sagacious, and 

 vigilant, so much so that it is almost impossible for one to get a shot at 

 them. Crows avoid them, and the two are never seen together. The farmers 

 of Grand Menan accuse them of pecking the eyes out of young lambs, and 

 always try to destroy them, and they grow less and less numerous every 

 year. The Ravens, he adds, appear to be on good terms with the Duck 

 Hawks, as he has known a nest of the former within a few rods of one of 

 the latter. 



An egg of this species, from Anderson River, measures 1.96 inches in 

 length by 1.32 in breadth. Two from Grand Menan measure, one 2.05 inches 

 by 1.30, the other 1.95 by 1.25. The ground-color of two of these is a 

 soiled sea-green, that of the third is a light bluish-green. This is more spar- 

 ingly marked with dots, blotches, and cloudings of faint purple and purplish- 

 brown, chiefly at the larger end. The others are marked over the entire egg 

 with blotches of varying size and depth of coloring, of a deep purple-brown ; 

 some of the markings are not readily distinguishable from black. 



Corvus cryptoleucus, Couch. 



WHITE-NECKED CROW. 



Corvus cryptoleucus, Couch, Pr. A. N. Sc. VII, April, 1854, 66 (Tamaulipas, Mexico). — 

 Baihd, Birds N. Am. 1858, 565, pi. xxii. — Cooper, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 284. 



Sp. Char. The fourth quill is longest ; the third and fifth equal ; the second longer 

 than the sixth ; the first about equal to the seventh. Glossy black, with violet reflec- 

 tions ; feathers of neck all round, back, and breast, snow-white at the base. Length, 

 about 21.00; wing, 14.00; tail, 8.50. Feathers of throat lanceolate; bristly feathers 

 along the base of the bill covering it for nearly two thirds its length. 



Hab. Valley of Rio Grande and Gila. Abundant on the Llano Estacado, and at Eagle 

 Pass, Texas (Dresser, Ibis, 1865, 494). Colorado (Aiken). 



In the white bases to the feathers of the neck, etc., there is a resemblance 

 in this species to the C. leucognaphahis of Porto Rico ; but the latter has 

 entirely different proportions, blended instead of lanceolate feathers on the 

 throat, exceedingly short instead of unusually long nasal plumes, and many 

 other differences, and is in every feature totally distinct. 



Habits. Of the distinctive habits or the extent of the distribution of the 



