A Crow Study 



By ALFRED C. REDFIELD. Wayne, Pa. 

 With photographs by the author 



HERE, in southeastern Pennsylvania, the Crow is one of our commonest 

 breeding birds. So it was with a feeling not unlike shame that I realized 

 I had never seen the eggs in a Crow's nest. During the last of March, 

 1909, I set to work to remedy this, and especially to find a nest well adapted to 

 photography. Nearly every patch of woods harbored one or more pairs of Crows, 

 so I had no trouble in finding several dozen nests. They did not seem at all par- 

 ticular about the kind of tree selected. Chestnut and beech, the prevailing 



woodland trees, were used most, but 

 nests were also found in hickory, elm, 

 cherry, and sw^eet birch. One nest 

 was placed in the branches of an 

 elm tree well out in the middle of 

 open fields. The height varied from 

 twenty to fifty or sixty feet, thirty- 

 five feet being the average. 



March 29, I found the nest I 

 was looking for. A small patch of 

 swamp}' woodland was separated 

 from a large wood by a much-used 

 road. Here in the solid crotch of a 

 good-sized beech, was a nest. It was 

 only twenty - five feet from the 

 ground, a cinch to climb and within 

 easy reach of home; but, better yet, 

 the tree branched just below the 

 nest, giving a substantial limb from 

 which to photograph. As the nest was not quite finished, I could watch things 

 from the start. 



April 3, I was back again. The nest now held two eggs. The bird would not 

 leave until I knocked on the base of the tree with a stick. The nest was made 

 up of small twigs, mostly of beech, and a little green moss. It formed a bulky 

 basket, fifteen inches across and half as deep. The well-formed hollow in which 

 the eggs lay, was lined with strips of bark and some very coarse hair. It was 

 seven inches in diameter and five inches deep. An egg w^as now added daily 

 until April 6, when the set of five was complete. The eggs were somewhat smaller 

 than a hen's. The ground color was greenish white, heavily spotted with lilac. 

 On Ai>ril 14, I photographed the nest and eggs. A small stick was nailed 

 to a convenient limb and to this the camera was clamped. With an eight-inch 

 lens and 4x5 camera, I was able to get an image of the desired size. Removing 



("+) 



PLACING THE DUMMY CAMER.\ 



