BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 267 



nests are exceedingly rude, and either on the inaccessible 

 cliffs, or in the loftiest trees of some very desolate section. 

 The eggs are usually four to six in number, two inches long, 

 light greenish blue, with light purple and yellowish-brown 

 blotches numerous about the larger end. Incubation lasts 

 about twenty -one days, and the young remain in the nest 

 several weeks before they are able to fly, fed at first on the 

 half digested food disgorged by the parents. Only a single 

 brood is reared in one season. 



The raven is a much more common bird in northern and 

 western Minnesota than I formerlj^ supposed, but is nowhere 

 so abundant as along the Pacific in the valleys of California 

 and Oregon. By the twenty fifth of March in most years, 

 they are often heard, but less frequently seen. Indeed they 

 are rarely seen in the vicinity of Minneapolis and St. Paul, 

 but from Bigstone lake to the British Possessions they seem 

 to beconie increasingly common. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill long, very strong and arched; nasal feathers lengthened, 

 reach middle of bill; nostrils large, circular, and overhung by 

 membrane; gape without bristles; wings long and pointed, 

 when closed reach nearly to tip of tail, and far beyond under 

 coverts; fourth quill longest; third and fifth about equal; 

 second between fifth and sixth; first nearly equal to eighth; 

 tail short and nearly even; tarsi longer than middle toe, 

 and scaled in front. 



Length, 25 inches; wing, 17; tail, 10. 



Habitat, North America from arctic regions to Guatemala, 

 but local and not common east of the Mississsippi river. 



CORVUS AMERICANUS Audubon. (488.) 

 AMERICAN CROW. 



I find the Crow a much more common species than my earlier 

 observations had led me to expect. It is generally distributed, 

 yet not at all equally so. It is fairly common in Fillmore 

 county, and along the whole southern tier of counties, but the 

 numbers grow relatively less until reaching about the middle, 

 and especially until the great timber belt is reached. From 

 thence northward there is an increase, so that in Otter Tail 

 county thence eastward and northward their numbers are 

 greatly augmented, even to the Lake of the Woods, where I 

 learn they breed abundantly, Dr. J. C. Hvoslef of Lanesboro 

 in Fillmore county through which the Root river runs, writes 



