NESTS AND EGGS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



The Common Crow is found in abundance in all the eastern States, from 

 Texas to Florida, and from the Missouri to Nova Scotia. It is also com- 

 mon in some parts of California. The nest is built in woods, preferably in 

 high, thick forest, and the tree selected is one of thick foliage. In pine 

 regions the cedar is the favorite tree. The altitude is usually so great that 

 the nest is often practically inaccessible. In quiet, solitary places, how- 

 ever, I have found it placed not more than ten or fifteen feet from the 

 ground. It is built of twigs and sticks, sometimes of considerable size, 

 firmly interlaced, weeds and grass often with clods of earth attached, and 

 lined with leaves, grape-vine bark and fine grasses. 



Hab. Temperate North America, excepting, probably, most of the high Central Plains and southern 

 Rocky Mountains, where the Raven abounds. 



2S2a, Florida Crow — CORVUS frugivorus floridanus. Similar to 

 those of the Common Crow, exhibiting the same variations. The nesting 

 habits are the same. Hab. Florida. 



2S2/;. Northwestern Fish Crow — coRvus frugivorus caurinus. Dark 

 green, thickly marked with dark brown and olive; four to six; size 1.60 

 by 1. 10. This Crow is confined to the seaboard of the Pacific from Cali- 

 fornia to Alaska. Its nest is built in willow-thickets, in groves of ever- 

 green oaks, and in the northern portion of its range the bird builds mostly 

 in spruces. Often several nests are found in a single tree, ranging from 

 twelve to forty feet from the ground. They are built like those of the 

 Common Crow, but always in trees near the shore or in the vicinity of 



water. Hab. North Pacific coast from California to Alaska. 



283. Fish Crow — corvus ossifragus. Nests and eggs of this bird 

 cannot be distinguished from those of the Crow, but average smaller. The 

 eggs are from four to five in number. 



Hab. South Atlantic and Gulf States north to New England. 



284. Clark's Nutcracker — picicorvus columbianus. Grayish-green, 

 speckled and blotched with grayish-brown and lilac, chiefly about the 

 larger end; size 1.20 by .90. Clark's Crow breeds in pines, in alpine and 

 northerly localities, placing the nest usually near the end of a horizontal 

 limb, from ten to twenty feet from the ground. It is bulky and coarsely 

 constructed of sticks, twigs, bark-strips, and grasses, compactly put to- 

 gether, and very deeply hollowed: sometimes so much so that the bird 

 when on it showing only part of her bill and tail, pointing almost upwards, 

 like the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher when sitting. This bird prefers to breed 

 in open, warm situations, on steep hillsides. The nest is generally well 

 concealed. 



Hab. Coniferous belt of the West, north to Sitka, south to Mexico, east to Nebraska, west to the coast 

 Range. 



