256 NoliTII AMKKICAX JJIKD.S. 



Sp. Ciiak. Tail roijiidcd or inodcratcly <«'ra<liiat«Ml. tlic closed winjr-'* n-at-iiiu^ nearly to 

 its ti|>. Fi)mtii (jiiill louiri'st ; seeond eonsidcrahly shorii-r than ilio sixili. General color 

 l»liiisli-asli. chanu^iiiLT on the nasal leathers, the lorehead. sides of head (especially around 

 the eye), and chin, to white. The wintrs, inclnding their iinier suiface, irreenish-hlack, 

 the secondaries and tertials, except tin- iiineruiost, broadly tipped with white; tail white, 

 the inner wel» oi' the lilth leather and the whole of the ^ixth. with the upper tail-eoverl<, 

 t;reenish-l>Iack. The axiilars ithnnl»eons-lilack. iJill and li-et l)!arl<. Vonnj; similar in 

 (jolor, without additional marking's of any kin<l. The tr»)nys, jiowever, convex, and the 

 hill u'enerally nioie like that of the Jays. Len^^th of male (fresh). I'J.(M>; wing, 7.00; tail, 

 4.:]0; tarsus. l.l'O. 



Il.vn. Fioiu Rocky M(nnitains to I'ai-ilic East to Foit Ke;u-nev. north to .*^itka, 

 south to Arizona. 



Hauits. Clarke's Cmw was first met with by the i>arties einiHM»sino the 

 celebrated exploriiiL^^ party to the Kocky Mmiiitaiiis under the direetidii of 

 Lewis and Clarke. It was descriheil l>v Wilson in ISll, wli(» was in- 

 lurnied by individuals bt'loiiuiiiij: to the ex}>edition that these birds were 

 found iidiabitin^ tlie sliores of the ('olund>ia and tlu' adjacent eountry in 

 <i:reat nunibers, fre<juentinu; the rivers and sea-shore, and that it seemed to 

 have all the noisy and lii'e^arious habits of the common Crow of Kuroj)e. 



In his account of tliis species, Mr. Xtittall states that durin<f his journev 

 westward in the month <d" Julv, he lirst (d)served individuals of tliis Idrd in 

 a small ijrove of ])ines on the borders of liear IJiver, near where it falls into 

 Lake Timpanai^^os. Tliis was at a liei^ht of abnut seven thousand feet 

 above tlie sea level, and in the 42d parallel. Their habits api>eared to him 

 to correspond witli th(»se of the \uteraekers of Kurope. 



He afterwards saw a considerable tlock of the younii^ birds earlv in Au- 

 «;ust, in a hd'ty ravine near tlie Three Ihittes, a remarkable isolated mountain 

 poup about forty miles west (d" the Lewis IJiver. Tliey ap]»eared somewhat 

 siiy, and were scattered throui,di a ^rove of aspens, tlyinu, with a slij^dit 

 chatter, from the tops of bushes and trees, to the «,'ronnd. He was of the 

 oi>inion tliat this species never descends below the mountain plains, but that 

 it has a constant predilection f«u' the }>ine forests 



Mr. Townsend afterwards found this species i.^'-ii lant on the Blue Moun- 

 tains of Oregon. He descril)es its Hight a v: y unlike that of a Crow, 

 Iteing performed in jerks, in the manner of a Wood])ecker. At times, wlien 

 sitting, it is said to keep U]) a constant scream, in a very harsh and grating 

 v<»ice, and in an unvaried and i>rolonged tone. He states that it breeds in 

 very high pine-trees, and that he did not meet with it within live hundred 

 miles of tlie Colundtia Kiver. 



Mr. llidgway found this species one of the nio.st alamdant birds of the 

 pine forests of the Sierra Nevada. East of this range it was also met with, 

 though oidy in smaller numbers, in the ceihir and ]iinon woods of the East 

 Humboldt Mountains. He adds that it is a bird .so curiously striking as 

 at once to attract attention. It bears but very little resemblance to any 

 bird of its family, and in its general appearance, Hight, and notes approaches 



