540 Colorado College Publication 



Corvus brachyrhynchos. Crow. 



Rare. The Crow has been taken so infrequently in El 

 Paso County that it would seem to be nothing more than a 

 straggler. There are but two specimens in the Aiken Collec- 

 tion, one without date, taken near Colorado Springs, the other 

 from Monument, taken in November, 1906. It is strange it 

 should be so rare here when there are many places north of 

 the Divide where it is a common bird. This species was com- 

 mon 15 miles southeast of Colorado Springs in February and 

 March, 1914, where they they were feeding on carcasses of 

 sheep killed by heavy snowstorms. 



Nucifraga columbiana. Clarke's Nutcracker. Clarke's 



Crow. 



Not uncommon resident in the mountains, coming lower 

 down in winter. 



Like the Rocky Mountain Jay, by whose names of Camp 

 Bird and Camp Robber it is sometimes called, Clarke's Nut- 

 cracker is a bird of the higher mountains, breeding quite early 

 in the green pine and spruce timber. There is a full grown 

 young of the year in the Aiken Collection, taken at St. Peter's 

 Dome, June 21, 1907. It is rather more of a wanderer than 

 the other species, and habitually comes down to lower eleva- 

 tions in winter and the early fall than that species does, Wet- 

 more and Rockwell noting a number at Palmer Lake Septem- 

 ber 6, 1909. It is plentiful in the Turkey Creek valley in au- 

 tumn. It has been seen at Lake Moraine in March, June and 

 September, and at Seven Lakes in January. In winter it is 

 found about the foothills and at Austin's Blufifs, and probably 

 wanders and straggles over most of the region where there 

 are trees. In September and October this species is apt to be 

 found among the pinons, living on the seeds or nuts of that 

 tree', getting them sometimes by clinging to a cone and hanging 

 upside down from it and extracting the seeds from below, 

 and again standing on top of a cone and reaching over and 



