CROWS 335 



Almost any kind of tree is utilized as a nesting site, with a 

 slight preference to pine and poplar near Bangor. The 

 nest usually is built on a firm foundation of sticks and 

 branches of various convenient kinds, then more or less cedar 

 and hemlock bark is used; some nests have considerable 

 mud cemented into the foundation, others are without it. 

 They are lined with more or less fine cedar and other bark, 

 and often horse or cow hair and wool. A nest found in a small 

 spruce tree near Bangor about twenty feet up on small limbs and 

 against the trunk was eight inches in height outside, and the 

 inside hollow was three and a half inches deep. The external 

 diameter was eighteen and the internal diameter eight inches. 

 I have found full sets of eggs at various dates from April 21 

 to June 15, but the last week in April and the first week in 

 May are the usual times to find eggs. 



The set varies from four to seven, generally five or six. 

 They are handsome and very variable, the ground color rang- 

 ing from creamy white, bluish green, olive green to olive buff, 

 spotted and blotched in varying degrees with brown, drab, 

 lavender, gray and occasionally blackish. I have seen a few 

 eggs nearly unspotted but a majority are spotted heavily and 

 uniformly over nearly the entire surface. Those from a nest 

 are generally similar, and sets taken in different seasons from 

 nests in the same small grove resemble one another closely 

 enough to satisfy me that the same birds sometimes nest for 

 several years in the same spot or near it. 



Both birds help to build the nest and incubate the eggs. 

 An egg is generally laid each day until the set is complete; 

 incubation requires seventeen to twenty days, varying accord- 

 ing to season and atmospheric conditions as well as perhaps 

 for other reasons. The young leave the nest in about twenty- 

 eight days. A typical set of eggs in my collection measure 

 1.70x1.23, 1.59x1.21, 1.65x1.22, 1.59x1.26, 1.66x1.23. 

 Crows can occasionally be learned to talk, uttering a few words 

 in a harsh voice. 



22 



