6 THE AMERICAN CROW. 
the like. When completed, the nest is about seven inches across and three 
deep inside. The expression “crow’s nest,” as used to indicate disarray, 
really arises from the consideration of old nests. Since the birds resort to 
the same locality year after year, but never use an old nest, the neighboring 
structures of successive years come to represent every stage of dilapidation. 
Normally Crows nest at middle heights in convenient trees in small 
woodlands, but under the stress of persecution they rise to greater heights and 
choose inaccessible trees, such as shell-bark hickories or giant elms. I once 
located a nest in the northern part of the state at a height of a hundred and 
ten feet in an elm tree five feet in diameter. Since the nest did not belong 
to a Swallow-tailed Kite, the eggs were not disturbed. On the other hand, 
the birds sometimes throw themselves on our mercy and build within fifteen 
or twenty feet of the ground, and in very climbable trees. 
The eggs vary interminably in coloration, but the type is strongly marked. 
In a recent monograph! it was deemed 
advisable to give a particular descrip- 
tion of fifty sets in order to cover the 
range of variation. Perhaps the most 
remarkable set that has come to light, 
at least in Ohio, was one found in the 
spring of 1892 near Oberlin. The four 
eges which comprise the set are en- 
tirely unmarked, of a pale blue color, 
not unlike that of Cooper Hawk’s eggs. 
They were taken by myself at two dif- 
ferent times, under circumstances which 
would seem to preclude the possibility 
of mistake in identity. A friend from 
Ontario, Rev. Giles G. Brown, who 
saw the eggs, assured me that all which 
he had ever seen near his native home 
were of the same description. 
April is the usual month for nesting, 
but birds are sometimes seen gathering 
nest materials during the first week in 
March, and incubation is often under 
way before the end of the month. Only 
one brood is provided for in a season 
unless some accident befalls the first, in 
which case another nest is more hastily 
prepared at some distance from the 
Photo by Griggs & Tyler. A = ae 
CROW NESTING. scene of former disaster. Deposition of 
1 The American Crow, by Frank L. Burns, Bulletin No. 5 of the Wilson Ornithological Chapter. 
