77 



been in the vicinity during the past season. I first noticed them on 

 February 24, being attracted by their small size, and for several weeks 

 thereafter they were often seen, their peculiarities of note and habit 

 at once distinguishing them from the common Crow. Their favorite 

 resort seems to be a growth of tall and partially decayed locusts bor- 

 dering a fresh-water pond, and on two of these trees standing to- 

 gether, somewhat apart from the others, the birds were to be found 

 almost every morning, but, owing to their shyness and the openness 

 of the ground, I was unable to approach within gunshot. In alight- 

 ing, they usually chose the very topmost branches of the trees, and 

 when approached manifested their suspicion by a restless and excited 

 motion of the wings, which appeared to be more pointed than in the 

 more stoutly built C. 'Americanus. Their note was an abrupt, ex- 

 pressionless croak, usually delivered singly and at regular intervals. 

 Though other Crows were often seen in the vicinity, this pair kept 

 aloof by themselves, and several times I saw them chased by a clam- 

 orous party of their larger relatives. Latterly, they have been rarely 

 noticed, and then always singly, thus indicating that they are breeding 

 in the vicinity." 



In 1844, De Kay first gave the Fish Crows as inhabitants of New 

 York State, observing 2 that "they are occasionally seen on the shores 

 of Long Island, but are generally confounded with the Common 

 Crow." His statement was not, until quite recently, fully substan- 

 tiated, and has been quite generally discredited by writers. Mr. 

 Clarence H. Eagle set the matter at rest, however, by publishing (in 

 the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. Ill, No. 1, p. 47, 

 for January, 1878) the following notice of its capture : " On the 17th 

 of July, 1873, 1 shot a fine female of this species near Rockaway, L. I. 

 The bird was flying around, but kept apart from a flock of Com- 

 mon Crows in the vicinity." Mr. Theodore Roosevelt furnished the 

 next record of its capture on Long Island (Notes on some of the 

 Birds of Oyster Bay, L. I., March, 1879). He says : " Dec. 30, 1874, 

 I shot a male. There was then a good deal of snow on the ground. 

 It was by itself, although the Common Crows were assembled in great 

 flocks." Messrs. Louis A. Zerega and H. A. Purdie (see Bulletin N. 

 O. C., Vol. V, No. 4, pp. 205 to 208, and 240, October, 1880) have 

 recently thrown much light upon the northern distribution of this 

 species, and it is now established to be a regularly breeding summer 

 resident on Staten Island, where Mr. H. A. Wheeler has observed it 

 from March to November, and observes that during the past five 

 years he has always found it breeding on Staten Island, but seldom 

 finds more than half a dozen nests in a season, if as many as that. 



2 New York Zoology, Part II, p. 135, 1844. 



