THE AMERICAN RAVEN 329 
things he should not. He is too fond of eggs, and also of 
young birds. He will pull up, by the roots, altogether too 
much newly planted corn; which is very unfair toward the 
farmer. While the damage is seldom very serious, it is 
always annoying; and when the Crow passes the limit of 
human endurance, powder and lead are his portion. For 
example: when a Crow nesting in Beaver Valley elected to 
make visits to our duck-pond where young wild ducks were 
hatching, and take five mallard ducklings in one morning, 
Curator Beebe was compelled to choose quickly between 
ducks and Crows, and provide for the survival of the fittest. 
Tue American Raven! is a bird of the “wild West,” 
quite rare, and seldom seen beyond the mountains. Even 
when you see it for the first time, you will readily recognize 
it by its all-black plumage, large size, slow and heavy flight 
and its hoarse and seldom “‘Quock!”? The crow is at all times 
a cheerful citizen, but the Raven always has a sore throat, 
and is always going to a funeral. 
He lives with Clarke’s nut-cracker and the other dwellers 
on the mountain tops north of the arid regions of Arizona 
and New Mexico, and nests in the crevices of high, rugged 
cliffs or canyon walls that are as completely inaccessible as 
can be found. He is suspicious of all attentions, wants no 
companions save of his own kind, and mighty few of those. 
The ‘“Quock” of a Raven in a rock-ribbed and gloomy can- 
yon is anything but a cheerful sound. 
Like the vulture, this bird feeds upon dead animals, dead 
fish and sometimes also upon the poisoned meat that wolfers 
distribute so generously. 
1 Cor'vus co'rax sin-u-a'tus. Length, 22 to 24 inches. 
