250 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



in the tone than in tlie clmracter of its cries. Its chief dependence for 

 food being on the sea, it is generally found along the beach, devouring dead 

 fish and other objects thrown up by the waves. ' At high tide the birds leave 

 the shore and resort to dwellings near the sea, where they devour the offal 

 and any refuse, vegetable or animal. As soon as the tide changes they are 

 sure to notice it and to return to their favorite feeding-ground. They are 

 very troublesome to the Indians, stealing their fish exposed for drying, and 

 other articles of food. From some superstitious awe of them the Indians 

 never molest these birds, but set their children to watch and drive them 

 away. They build in trees near tlie shore, and the young are fledged in May. 



In the southern half of California, Dr. Cooper states, these birds are 

 rarely seen near the sea, preferring inland districts, and only occasionally 

 coming to the shores of the bays to feed. During most of the year they 

 associate in large flocks, feeding in company, and are gregarious even in the 

 breeding-season, building in close proximity to one another. Frequently 

 several nests may be found on the same tree. In this respect they are very 

 unlike the eastern species, which never permit another pair near their nest. 



These birds were found by Dr. Cooper breeding as far south as San Diego, 

 where they selected for their breeding-places the groves of evergreen oaks 

 growing in ravines. Their nests were from twelve to forty feet from the 

 ground. In the north they generally build in spruces. He describes their 

 nests as strongly built of sticks, coarse on the outside, but finer on the inside, 

 where they are mingled with roots, grasses, moss, horse-hair, etc., to form a soft 

 lining. The eggs, four in number, have a ground-color of a dark shade of green, 

 thickly marked with dark brown and olive. He gives their average measure- 

 ment as 1.60 by 1.10 inches. At San Diego they are laid about April 15. 



Where unmolested, these birds have not yet become so shy as in the older 

 districts, but they soon learn to apprehend the danger of a gun, and to evince 

 the cunning characteristics of their tribe. They have not, as yet, manifested 

 any disposition to disturb the growing crops, and the small depredations they 

 commit are far more than counterbalanced by their destruction of immense 

 numbers of grubs, grasshoppers, and other injurious insects. They obtain a 

 large supply of food around the cattle-ranches. 



In northern California they feed largely on fish, and on the Columbia on 

 clams and oysters. 



For reasons not well understood, they avoid particular districts during the 

 breeding-season. Dr. Cooper has never noticed one, during this season, on 

 the coast south of Santa Clara, has never seen one in the Colorado Valley, 

 nor in the Sierra Nevada. 



At Visalia, where an extensive forest of oaks forms an oasis in the great 

 Tulare plain, he met with large flocks of these birds, with the same gregari- 

 ous habits as were observed on the coast. 



During tlie month of July, 1866, a large number of these Crows came 

 every evening to roost in an alder-grove near the town of Santa Cruz. They 



