CATALOGUE OF CANADIAN BIRDS. 4I9 



1874. (Coues.) A common summer resident throughout Mani- 

 toba. (E. T. Seton.) This crow is seen in the interior of the North- 

 west Territories in summer only and does not go beyond lat. 55" 

 nor approach within five or six hundred miles of Hudson bay- 

 (Richardson.) North on the Mackenzie river to lat. 61°; abundant. 

 (Ross.) On the loth May, 1865, an Eskimo snared the parent 

 bird on a nest which was built on the top of a tall spruce on the 

 lower Anderson river; another was taken near Fort Anderson on 

 5th May, 1866. (Macfarlane.) This species arrived at Indian 

 Head, Sask., before April ist, 1892, as they were numerous at that 

 date; they were building nests by the 27th and on May 6th I found 

 a nest with five eggs, which was in a willow tree ; the nest was made 

 of sticks and lined with dried grass ; this species was found in pairs 

 nearly all over Saskatchewan in 1895, wherever there was wood, 

 but none was seen in Alberta until we reached Waterton lake at 

 the base of the Rocky mountains; common at Crane lake. Medicine 

 Hat, Cypress hills. Moose Jaw, and around Old Wives lake and 

 creek, also at Wood mountain; none seen north of Lesser Slave 

 lake in 1903; May 8th, 1894, examined a number of nests at Medi- 

 cine Hat, Sask., but only found one egg; a few were breeding at 

 Crane lake, June 12th; found a nest with four young ones; at the 

 east end of Cypress hills a few pairs were breeding the last week in 

 June. (Spreadborough.) Everywhere abundant from Manitoba 

 west to Edmonton, Alta. (Atkinson.) Abundant and surprisingly 

 tame at the Grand rapids of the Saskatchewan; young crows make 

 themselves at home on the houses and in the door-yards at Grand 

 Rapids. (Nutting.) This bird is our first harbinger of spring. As 

 soon as the snow begins to melt and show the ground, they arrive, 

 by twos, by threes, by fours, and then in greater numbers, filUng 

 the air ^ith their cries. They mate very early and begin to build 

 their nests long before the leaves begin to appear. (Coubeaux.) 

 Very numerous at Buffalo lake, near Methye portage, lat. 56°, and 

 at Isle a la Crosse, feeding on dead fish; a few specimens between 

 Red Deer river and Athabaska landing, about a dozen in all. (/. 

 M. Macoun.) 



Breeding Notes. — ^The bulk of the crows, which are migrants, 

 begin to arrive here about the ist of March and commence build- 

 ing nests in April. One nest examined on April 30th, 1882, con- 

 tained six eggs incubated, and another one. May 24th, 1882, con- 



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