28 BIRDS. 
is so limited. In size it is smaller than the common 
crow, and is a much less noble and dignified bird. 
Its caw is weak and feminine —a sort of split and 
abortive caw, that stamps it the sneak-thief it is. 
This crow is common farther south, but is not found 
in this State, so far as I have observed, except in the 
valley of the Hudson. 
One season a pair of them built a nest in a Norway 
spruce that stood amid a dense growth of other or- 
namental trees near a large unoccupied house. They 
sat down amid plenty. The wolf established himself 
in the fold. The many birds —robins, thrushes, 
finches, vireos, pewees—that seek the vicinity of 
dwellings (especially of these large country residences 
with their many trees and park-like grounds), for the 
greater safety of their eggs and young, were the easy 
and convenient victims of these robbers. ‘They plun- 
dered right and left, and were not disturbed till their 
young were nearly fledged, when some boys, who 
had long before marked them as their prize, rifled 
the nest. | ; 
The song-birds nearly all build low; their cradle 
is not upon the tree-top. It is only birds of prey 
that fear danger from below more than from above, 
and that seek the higher branches for their nests. A 
line five feet from the ground would run above more 
than half the nests, and one ten feet would bound 
more than three fourths of them. It is only the 
oriole and the wood pewee that, as a rule, go higher 
than this. The crows and jays and other enemies of 
the birds have learned to explore this belt pretty 
thoroughly. But the leaves and the protective color- 
ing of most nests baffle them as effectually, no doubt, 
as they do the professional odlogist. The nest of the 
