CORVID^ — THE CROWS. 241 



slnii<];litcr-hoiisc8. In Noveinbor, in the Jiaudcra Hills, sevuml ciuno to liis 

 ciunp to feast on the ofl'al oi" deer. J)r. Woodhouse also found them very 

 almndant in Texas, the Indian Territory, and New Mexico, and especially 

 so on the buffalo i)lains. In the ^lexican Boundary Survey, Dr. Kennerly 

 observed these birds everywhere iu Northern Mexico, flocks of them follow- 

 ing,' the train from point to point. They were not at all shy, but often came 

 into camp in searcli of food. 



Captain JJlakiston, having enjoyed unusual opportunities for oliservin<,' the 

 habits of the American Kaven during his residence in higii northern regions, 

 characterizes the species as anything but solitary. During the day they are 

 usually met with in i)airs, except when drawn together in large numbers 

 around the carcass of a dead animal. At night, during the winter, they 

 repair to some chosen resting-place, usually a clump of trees on the edge of 

 a prairie, and there roost in one innnense body. One of these roosting-places 

 was about a mile from Fort Carlton, and Captain Blakiston's attention was 

 first drawn to it by noticing that almut sunset all the liavens, fnjm all quar- 

 ters, were Hying towards this point. Keturning to the fort in the evening by 

 that (quarter, he found a clumj) of aspen-trees, none of them more than 

 twenty-five feet high, filled with Eavens, who, at his approach, took wing 

 and flew round and round. He also noted the wonderful regularity with 

 wliich they repaired to their roosting-place in the evening and left it again 

 in the morning, by pairs, on their day's hunt. They always left in the morn- 

 ing, within a minute or two of the same time, earlier and earlier as the days 

 grew longer, on cold or cloudy mornings a little later, usually just half an 

 hour before sunrise. In April they all paired off, and their roosting-place 

 became deserted. During an excursion about one hundred and fifty miles 

 southwest of Fort C'arlton, f'itiitain lUakiston found several n(;sts of Ifavens 

 with eggs, one of which w\as in a small tree near a lake, and was not more 

 than fifteen feet above it. It contained six eggs, was about a foot in diame- 

 ter, composed of sticks, and was lined with buttalo-liair and pieces of scarlet 

 cloth, evidently picked up about an Indian camping-ground. 



Dr. Ileermann states that while in California he always found the nests 

 of the liaven placed high on bold jirecipitous cliffs, secure against danger ; 

 in the vast desolate plains of New Mexico he saw these birds building on 

 low trees, and even on cactus-plants, less than three feet from the ground, 

 showing how much circumstances and localities affect the habits of birds 

 regarding incubation. 



A liaven, probably this species, is abundant on the plateau of Mexico. 

 The Cerro Colorado, near Tehuacan, is the rendezvous of a large number of 

 these birds, where, according to Sumichrast, at the time of the flowering of 

 the mntiueij, they gather in great abundance, to feed on the blossoms of this 

 plant, which are their favorite food. 



Mr. ]>oardman writes me that he has several times collected Ravens' eggs 

 at (Jrand Menan, but always found the nest a hard one to take, as they 



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