=8 



Tin-: IOWA oKXiTlIOLOGIvST, 



in Mahaska County Ihoug-h at iio 

 time abundant. There seems to 

 be a pair for about every farm- 

 house. Their nest is very neatly 

 concenled generally contains 4 to 

 <> nicely marked eg-g-s, in every 

 case coming- under my ol)serva- 

 tion the nest is lined with fine 

 dark colored roots. It may be of 

 interest to note in this connec- 

 tion that Mr. R. D. Goss has in 

 his cabinet an albino of this 

 species which was taken from a 

 nest w^hich contained others of 

 the usual color. The specimen 

 was kept as a pet for a consider- 

 able time before it came into Mr. 

 Goss' collection". (W. A. Bryan ) 



Corvus Americanus. (Aud. 

 AMERICAN CROW. 



'■Resident throughout the 3'ear. 

 Common. A very wild, suspicious 

 bird, generally very hard to ap- 

 proach, but sometimes a person 

 can walk up quite close to a flock. 

 Easily tamed when young. Nests 

 in this vicinity are generally 

 placed not very high from the 

 ground, from 15 to 35 feet being 

 the extremes which I have found. 

 Nests are smaller than Hawk's 

 nests, and are deeper and much 

 more carefully built. Eggs green- 

 ish, speckled with brown, much 

 variation in shape and color. 

 Have found nests as follows; 

 May 14, 1894 -nest containing six- 

 young. Apr. 14, 1894 - 4 fresh 

 eggs, Basswood 35 ft. up. Apr. 14 



1894 - 5 eggs incubation advanced. 

 Apr. 14, 1894 -3 egg^ and one 

 young bird. May 5,1894 - 4 young 

 and one egg, burr oak 35 ft. 

 May 6, 1894 - 5 eggs incubation 

 slight, burr oak 25 ft. up." 

 ( Rudolph M. Anderson.) 

 "The crow is very abundant in 

 P'ranklin county there being no 

 time of the 3'ear when it is not 

 present in large numbers. Even 

 the severest weather finds it with 

 us. During the first ten days of 

 February in the present year, 

 v^rhen ths temparature varied from 

 zero to 30 degrees below, there 

 was not a day wdien crows were 

 not seen in large flocks. In this 

 region the nesting season extends 

 over a ccnsidere^ble period. Com- 

 plete sets have been found April 

 1st. and eggs have been taken as 

 late as th2 la3t week in May, the 

 heig-ht of the period being about 

 the latter part of April. The usual 

 number of eggs in a set is 5, some- 

 times 4; occasionally more are laid, 

 as I have seen several sets of 6 and 

 7, and have one of eight, taken by 

 myself, in my cabinet. The eggs 

 are extremely variable in shape, 

 size, ground-color and markings. 

 In my collection are eggs meas- 

 uring 2.01 to 1.47 in length and 

 from 1.25 to 1.05 in diameter. 

 Some of the sets are of light blu- 

 ish coloration, sparingly dotted 

 over the entire surface with dark 

 brown; others are of light sea- 

 green color, wdth the surface 

 almost covered with heavy blotch- 



