niSTOKY OF CALIFORNIA. 839 



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

 to collect subsistence ; but thcj resort to the low 

 grounds more in winter than summer, as thej avoid 

 the heat and dislike to wander from their cool retreats. 

 They never roost in the woods like crows; and have 

 sufficient sap^acitv to choose in their rockv retreats a 

 situation defended from tlie 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 moulderinn- 

 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 i^ica) is a California 

 bird. 



This bird, says Xuttall, 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 Kocky Mountains ^vest 

 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 ^libsouri as Boonsborouirh in the 

 severity of winter, driven from the western wilder- 

 ness, only by the impejious calls of hunger. In 



