THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by Dr. A. A. Allen 



YOUNG CROWS ARE MOSTLY ArrETlTE 



This is the welcome home which awaits Jim Crow or his spouse when they return to the nest 

 with dinner. Tliey are faithful parents and work hard to keep their youngsters' voracious hunger 

 appeased. 



kill the newborn lambs and sickly sheep. 

 So the people made war upon him, and 

 to-day ravens do not btiikl their nests 

 within the boundaries of that State. 



The bird is not uncommon in Maine, 

 especially near the sea, where he is a 

 scourge to some of the bird colonies of 

 that rocky coast. On the island of No 

 Mans Land, near the fishing village of 

 Matinicus, Maine, a pair of ravens has 

 lived for years in a nest in a sturdy ever- 

 green tree. How long ago it was built 

 I was not able to learn, but it is a verv 

 substantial structure. Year after year it 

 has been repaired by the addition of a few 

 new sticks, a little fresh wool, a few bill- 

 fuls of seaweed, and small roots to help 

 shape afresh the ample bowl for the eggs. 



Defying the fierce gales which in winter 

 sweep over these icy seas, the eerie stands 

 secure, and every season has seen it occu- 

 pied by young ravens, which, here at least, 

 need not "lack and suffer hunger." 



On this rocky island, safe from the ordi- 

 nary enemies of birds which haunt the 

 neighboring mainland, many thousands of 

 herring gulls assemble in summer. Their 



eggs, as well as the young, are constantly 

 eaten by the ravens, and a continuous war- 

 fare goes on between the two species. 



On a sagebrush slope in northern Ne- 

 vada I foimd a raven feeding itpon a sage 

 hen, and in a little opening in a Utah for- 

 est I came upon three ravens and a turkey 

 vulture eating the body of a young mule 

 deer. Probably in neither case were the 

 ravens responsible for the death of the 

 creatures upon which they were feasting. 



It makes no difference to the raven how 

 long an animal has been dead ; he seems 

 to relish carrion just as much as he enjoys 

 the flesh of recently killed animals. Groups 

 of ravens gather every day in summer 

 about the refuse heaps back of the hotels 

 in Yellowstone National Park and pick 

 over the garbage in company with the 

 bears. Often you may find one or more 

 waiting e.\pectantlv on the ]iosts of a cer- 

 tain corral in Glacier National Paid\. 



Just north of the Grand Canyon, in 

 northern Arizona, lies the Kaibab Plateau, 

 with its famous deer herd attracting tour- 

 ists from afar. Here, when the deer were 

 accustomed to gather in the afternoon, I 



