330 NESTS AND EGGS OF 



489.. OBEGON JAY. Perisoreus obscurus (Ridgw.) Geog. Dist. — Northwest 

 coast, from Northern California to British Columbia. 



Mr. A. W. Anthony mentions this species as a common winter resident of Wash- 

 ington county, Oregon. In March they depart for the mountains to breed, although 

 a few sometimes remain to breed in the more secluded parts of the country. He 

 characterizes It as a bird utterly devoid of fear. While dressing deer in the thick 

 timber he has been almost covered with these Jays; they would alight on his back, 

 head and shoulders, and there tug and- pilU at each loose shred of his coat as if 

 assisting him in all ways possible. On March 31, 1884, he took a nest with five eggs, 

 the first, probably, ever taken'. The nest was placed about eighty-five feet from thfe 

 ground, in a fir, and well concealed, It was built close against the trunk, and was 

 composed of sticks, twigs and moss, rather loosely' put together, lined with cow-hair, 

 wool, and'one or two grouse feathers. The eggs were very light blue, with a grayish 

 cast, thickly covered with spotsof browJl and lilac, chiefly on the larger ends. In. 

 one specimen there were a few -fclack, hair-like lines over the larger end. Size, 

 1.04X.79. 



486. AMERICAM' EAVEU". Corvus corax sinuatus (Wagl.) Geog. Dist. — 

 Western United States, from the. Rocky Mountains south to Guatemala. 



An inhabitant of the regions west of the Rocky Mountains, where it is common. 

 The late Major Bendire wrote as follows: "Our ravens have recently been separated 

 into two races-; but from the information I have been able to obtain it is questionable 

 if the alleged differences of the two forms will- prove constant and marked enough" to 

 warrant this distinction. There is not at present sufficient material available for 

 examination to determine this conclusively. I will leave this to abler ornithologists 

 to decide, and will follow the adopted nomenclature of the American Ornithologists* 



486. Head of a Raven . 



Union for the present, including, however, the Ravens found in the Eastern United 

 States in this race." He states that the Raven Is found throughout the western 

 portions of the United States more commonly than in the eastern parts of its range, 

 where it is found only locally, chiefly in the more mountainous regions from New 

 England and Northern New York to South Carolina, and in the thinly inhabited and 

 heavily timbered sections of some of our Northern and Middle States. Out of 

 twenty nests examined near Camp Harney, Oregon, only one was placed in a tree, 

 which was In a dead willow twenty feet from the ground, on an island in Sylvlea 

 River, and contained five fresh eggs on April 13. The other nests were placed oe 



