SUPPLEMENT TO BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY 



127 



201 [484] Perisoreus canadensis canadensis (Linn.). 

 Canada Jay. 

 Accidental visitor from the North. 

 The record of 1878 remains unique. 

 [486a] Corvus corax principalis Ridgw. Northern American Raven. — Extirpated. 



202 [488] Corvus brachyrhynchos brachyrhynchos Brehm. 



Crow. 

 Abundant permanent resident, most numerous in winter on the coast. 

 Eggs: April 15 to June 13. 



Much could be said about the Crow. One always finds something new in 

 this interesting and original bird. The endless variety of its notes and calls, its 

 tracks in the sand, and its pellets telling the tale of its diet are all of great interest. 



The courtship song is undoubtedly the hoarse rattling sound which is some- 

 times likened to the gritting of teeth. This is uttered from a perch with the bill 

 pointed downward and also on the wing like an orthodox flight-song. On July i, 

 1919, a Crow at Ipswich regaled me by repeating this song seven times in quick 

 succession, and afterward at irregular intervals for half an hour. A good deal 

 of fighting goes on in the spring courting. Sometimes it occurs in the air and 

 the birds try to rise above one another, or one flies after another in hot pursuit. 

 Suddenly the two set their wings and dash down toward the earth only to rise 

 again and repeat the game. One April day I saw two Crows, cawing loudly, 

 tumble all over each other on the ground, then fly up in the air and repeat the 

 fight until they fell nearly to the ground again. 



On a day in May four or five Crows flew about high over my head at Ips- 

 wich, scolding in the way they do when one approaches their nests. Every now 

 and then one would nearly close his wings and dive down toward me at an angle 

 of 45° for several hundred feet, making at the same time a whirring noise. When 

 within a short distance of me, the Crow would turn sharply and glide upward. 

 The performance was spectacular and rather alarming. 



Since the original Memoir was published, there have occurred great changes 

 in the winter roosts of the Crows and I have made studies of a new roost initiated 

 in 1916 at Ipswich, the account^ of which I published at length in the Auk. 



1 Townsend, C. W. Auk, vol. 35, p. 405-416, 1918. 



