20 Rhoads, Washington and British Columbia Birds. LJan- 



Dr. Suckley, who was the first to describe the habits of caurinus, notices 

 particularly the difference in the voice of the Pacific coast forms from 

 that of the Eastern bird, and, while recognizing that there was a great 

 difference in size among the Crows frequenting Puget Sound, naturally 

 attributed these vocal differences solely to the smaller and more numerous 

 individuals designated as caurinus. He failed to see any difference in the 

 breeding habits of the large and small birds. It remained for the imagin- 

 ative and too superficial naturalist of the International Boundary Commis- 

 sion, Mr. J. K. Lord, to further separate the so-called 'Barking Crow' from 

 its larger associate, by stating that the former, after spending the winter 

 on the coast, retired to the interior to breed, and that it there constructed 

 a domed nest of mud and sticks, etc. On the contrary, I am free to assert 

 that typical specimens of caurinus rarely cross the Cascade Range, and 

 more rarely breed there, that they breed as abundantly and in the same 

 manner and situations along the Pacific coast as their larger brethren; 

 that Northwest Crows never build a domed nest, nor, to my knowledge, 

 ever inhabit one, that custom being the peculiar monopoly of the Magpie; 

 and, finally, that the vocal peculiarities of Northwest as distinguished 

 from Eastern Crows are shared equally by great and small birds. 



Prof. Baird, in the original description of C. caurinus, characterizes it 

 as a "small Crow from the northwest coast," separable from americanus 

 by its diminutive size, but differing in no other essential particular of 

 proportions or coloration from americanus, and quotes Dr. Suckley re- 

 garding its habits, as already given. Baird further shows that C. ossi- 

 fragus is easily separable from both americanus and caurinus by the 

 relative proportions of tarsus and toes and by the color of lower parts, and 

 raises the question whether caurinus is "more than a dwarfed race of the 

 other species," /'. e. of americanus. 



Mr. Ridgway, in his 'Manual,' endeavored to formulate characters for 

 caurinus which would set at rest any doubts as to its title to specific rank, 

 resting his claim on certain peculiarities of coloration and measurements 

 which the material in my possession proves to be inconstant and value- 

 less. In answer to a letter calling attention to this, he writes: "I had 

 entertained hopes that good characters might be found to distinguish C. 

 caurinus as a species, but doubtless you are justified in your failure to find 

 them. Is it not possible, however, that interbreeding of caurinus and the 

 western form of americanus has caused the state of affairs which you have 

 discovered ? " 



Summing up the evidence, we have left us barely two alternatives, one 

 the possibility that "caurinus and the western form of americanus" 1 inter- 

 breed in this region and that the intermediates are hybrids resulting from 

 such a union, the other, the probability that caurinus is a dwarfed example 

 of the smaller western race which Mr. Ridgway described in 18S7 under 

 the name of Corvus americanus fiesperis, and which, for reasons better 

 known to themselves than to the public, the A. O. U. Committee failed to 

 recognize. A subspecific distinction between the smaller and larger inter- 

 breeding Crows of the Pacific coast being a violation alike of good sense 



