HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA. 



839 



adopted home. If they descend into the plain, it is 

 to collect subsistence ; but they resort to the low 

 grounds more in winter than summer, as they avoid 

 the heat and dislike to wander from their cool retreats. 

 They never roost in the woods like crows; and have 

 sufficient sagacity to choose in their rocky retreats a 

 situation defended from the winds of the north, com 

 monly under the natural vault formed by an extend 

 ing ledge or cavity of the rock. Here they retire 

 during the night in companies of fifteen to twenty. 

 They perch upon the bushes which grow straggling in 

 the clefts of the rocks ; but they form their nests in 

 the rocky crevices, or in the holes of the mouldering 

 walls, at the summits of ruined towers ; and sometimes 

 upon the high branches of large and solitary trees. 

 After they have paired, their fidelity appears to con 

 tinue through life. The male expresses his attachment 

 by a particular strain of croaking, and they are often 

 observed caressing by approaching their bills, with as 

 much semblance of affection as the truest turtle doves. 



The Crow (Corvus corone) is also abundant in Ca 

 lifornia. The Magpie (Corvus pica) is a California 

 bird. 



This bird, says Nuttall, is much more common in 

 Europe than in America, being confined in this coun 

 try to the northern regions, and to the plains and 

 table lands or steppes of the Rocky Mountains west 

 of the Mississippi. Thence they continue to the 

 banks of the Columbia, and on the opposite side of 

 northern and temperate Asia, are found in Kams- 

 chatka, Japan, and China. They are sometimes met 

 with as far down the Missouri as Boonsborouo-h in the 



o 



severity of winter, driven from the western wilder 

 ness, only by the imperious calls of hunger. In 



