266 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



southwestern coast of Nova Scotia. The nest is made of large sticks, 

 closely and artistically arranged, with a lining of coarse grasses, sea- 

 weed and wool. The same nest is repaired from year to year, and in 

 course of time becomes quite bulky. The eggs are four to six in num- 

 ber. A set of five eggs is in my cabinet, which was collected by Mr. 

 H. Pope, near South West Point, on the island of Anticosta, off the 

 mouth of the St. Lawrence, April 21, 1887. The nest was built in 

 cliffs facing the sea, and the eggs were secured only after a dangerous 

 scramble over banks of ice and snow. Like the eggs of the crow, 

 these are subject to great variation in markings. The ground-color is 

 pale bluish-green or light olive-green. They are spotted, blotched, 

 streaked or dashed with purple and greenish-brown ; some specimens 

 are so densely marked as to almost wholly obscure the ground-color, 

 giving the specimens a dull greenish-gray appearance. Four of the 

 specimens in the set of five are of this type, while the other is of a 

 brilliant bluish-green, sparsely marked with blackish-brown and ob- 

 scure lilac. Their sizes are: 1.85x1.24, 1.90x1.30, 2.04x1.32, 2.07 x 

 1.34. A set of five eggs is in Mr. N orris' collection, taken April 8, 1875, 

 on the island of Grand Manan, from a nest in a fir tree, twenty-five 

 feet from the ground. It was made of sticks, moss and bark, lined 

 with wool. The eggs have a chromium-green ground-color, spotted 

 and blotched with olive. They measure: i.86x 1.33, 1.81 x 1.33, i.Sox 

 1.31, 1.83x1.33, 1.80x1.35. 



487. Corvus cryptoleucus COUCH. [281.] 



'White-necked Raven. 



Hab. Southwestern United States and table-lands of Mexico, north to Indian Territory, Kansas, 

 Colorado and Southern California, south to Guatemala. 



The White-necked Raven is an abundant species throughout most 

 of its range. The bird's general appearance and its nesting habits are 

 similar to those of the common crow, with which it is often con- 

 founded. 



From four to seven eggs are laid by this species, and they have, on 

 the whole, markings of a lighter color than the eggs of other species 

 of Corvus ; and in addition they have lines running from pne end of 

 the egg to the other, somewhat after the manner of those on the genus 

 Myiarckus, of the Flycatchers, of which the most familiar example is 

 the Crested Flycatcher, M. crinitus. This peculiarity is typical of the 

 species, and is found constant in a large series in the collection of the 

 National Museum, at Washington. A set of five eggs in Mr. Norris' 

 cabinet was taken May 16, 1888, in Cochise county, Arizona, from a 

 nest in an oak tree. The eggs are of a pale bluish-green, spotted with 



