BIRDS OF MINNESOTA. 267 
nests are exceedingly rude, and either on the inaccessible 
cliffs, or in the loftiest trees of some very desolate section. 
The eggs are usually four to six in number, two inches long, 
light greenish blue, with light purple and yellowish-brown 
blotches numerous about the larger end. Incubation lasts 
about twenty-one days, and the young remain in the nest 
several weeks before they are able to fly, fed at first on the 
half digested food disgorged by the parents. Only a single 
brood is reared in one season. 
The raven isa much more common bird in northern and 
western Minnesota than I formerly supposed, but is nowhere 
so abundant as along the Pacific in the valleys of California 
and Oregon. By the twenty fifth of March in most years, 
they are often heard, but less frequently seen. Indeed they 
are rarely seen in the vicinity of Minneapolis and St. Paul, 
but from Bigstone lake to the British Possessions they seem 
to become increasingly common. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill long, very strong and arched; nasal feathers lengthened, 
reach middle of bill; nostrils large, circular, and overhung by 
membrane; gape without bristles; wings long and pointed, 
when closed reach nearly to tip of tail, and far beyond under 
coverts; fourth quill longest; third and fifth aoout equal; 
second between fifth and sixth; first nearly equal to eighth; 
tail short and nearly even; tarsi Jonger than middle toe, 
and scaled in front. 
Length, 25 inches; wing, 17; tail, 10. 
Habitat, North America from arctic regions to Guatemala, 
but local and not common east of the Mississsippi river. 
CORVUS AMERICANUS Avupuson. (4838. ) 
AMERICAN CROW. 
I find the Crow a much more common species than my earlier 
observations had led me to expect. It is generally distributed, 
yet not at all equally so. It is fairly common in Fillmore 
county, and along the whole southern tier of counties, but the 
numbers grow relatively less until reaching about the middle, 
and especially until the great timber belt is reached. From 
thence northward there is an increase, so thatin Otter Tail 
county thence eastward and northward their numbers are 
greatly augmented, even to the Lake of the Woods, where I 
learn they breed abundantly, Dr. J. C. Hvoslef of Lanesboro 
in Fillmore county through which the Root river runs, writes 
