NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 33* 



cliffs and it generally took several assistants and strong ropes to reach tne nests con- 

 taining the eggs. A favorite site was a cliff where the nest was completely covered 

 from above by a projecting rock. They were constructed of sticks well interlaced, 

 the inner cup being lined with cattle hair or quilted with the fine inner bark of the 

 cottonwood. Mr. C. Barlow writes me (1895) that a pair of Ravens have nested on 

 the cliffs of the Farallones for years, near what is known as the West End. No per- 

 son had attempted to secure the nest and eggs until this year, when one of the light- 

 house keepers, Mr, R. H. Williams, was lowered by rope to the ledge where the nest 

 was situated. It was placed in a niche of a cliff about one hundred feet in height, 

 the nest being about twenty-five feet from the top. In the immediate vicinity there 

 are numerous other niches where solitary pairs of Baird's Cormorants breed undis- 

 turbed. On June 9th the nest contained two unfeathered young, apparently but a. 

 few days old. The nest was composed of sticks and pieces of wreckage, the cavity 

 being lined with goat's hair, obtained from a dead animal. The number of eggs laid 

 by the Raven ranges from five to seven, commonly five, while six is not rare. The 

 ground color is a pale pea green or light olive green, spotted and blotched with 

 various shades of brown, drab, and lavender. The average size is 1.92x.27 inches. 



486a. NORTHERN RAVEN. Corvus corax principalis Ridgw. Geog. Dist. 

 Northern North America, from Greenland to Alaska, south to British Columbia, 

 Canada, New Brunswick, Maine, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, North Carolina, etc. 



If it were possible in the English language the name of Poe and Raven would 

 doubtless become synonymous, for who can think of the Raven without associating 

 it with the name of Edgar Allen Poe? In former years the Raven appears to have 

 been considered not uncommon in the northern New England States, but is now 

 considered very rare, and late records of its occurrence there are very few. It breeds 

 occasionally on the cliffs of the island of Grand Manan, and more frequently farther 

 east, as in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, etc. It is rather a common 

 resident along the whole coast of Labrador. In Alaska this Raven nests about the 

 middle of May; in> South Greenland Hagerup took eggs April 11 and May 9. Mac- 

 Farlane found its eggs on. the Anderson River, British America, April 30. Forest- 

 clad cliffs of great rivers, the crags of lonely islands in the ocean, wooded lakes and 

 streams in solitary regions are the haunts of this sable-plumed, ominous bird. The 

 Rev. J. H. Langille states that in Nova Scotia nesting begins early in March. The 

 site chosen for the nest is usually the most inaccessible tree or rocky cliff; sometimes, 

 however, it is built in the flat-topped, low spruces, as is the case on Mud and Seal 

 Islands, on the 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 number. A set of five eggs is in my cabinet, 

 which was collected by Mr. H. Pope, near South West Point, on the island of Anti- 

 costa, 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 varia- 

 tion 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, giv- 

 ing the surface 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 obscure lilac. Their sizes are: 1.85x1.24, 1.90x1.30, 2.04x 

 1.32, 2.07x1.34. The average size is 1.90x1.27 inches. 



