THE WHITE-NECKED EAVEN. 403 



short distance from my tent, evidently digging up something. He pecked away 

 vigorously, and then removed the loosened dirt by scraping with his beak from 

 side to side, forming a kind of trench. I watched him for some time with a 

 field glass, but could not imagine what he was trying to do, so I waited until 

 he had finished, noting the locality carefully. He must have worked nearly 

 half an hour before he flew away. Upon going to the place afterwards, which 

 I thought I could locate at once, I had considerable difficulty in finding it; for 

 everything had been replaced so carefully and naturally that it looked as if the 

 ground had not been disturbed, excepting that a fresh chip of wood was placed on 

 the spot, possibly to mark it. On investigating I found that the bird had made a 

 trench in the hard soil fully 2^ inches deep and about twice as long, in which he 

 had buried a croquette made of canned salmon which the cook had thrown out. 

 I removed this, carefully replaced the soil again as naturally as possible, and 

 marked it with a chip, in the hope of being able to watch the bird when returning 

 for it the next day; but I failed to see him, as he came too early, and, finding the 

 cach^ robbed, he left in disgust. In its movements the White-necked Raven is 

 not as graceful as the Raven, and its call notes also vary considerably from 

 those of the latter; they are not so loud and penetrating nor so varied. A harsh 

 "kwank, kwank" is most often heard while the bird is on the wing. Their flight 

 is strong and often quite protracted I have sometimes noticed them sailing in 

 circles like Eagles or Hawks, especially in the early spring. 



The food of the White-necked Raven consists principally of animal matter, 

 like that of its larger relatives, and, judging from their numbers in certain 

 localities, it seems to find subsistence readily enough in even the most barren 

 regions. This bird is very common in portions of southern Arizona and New 

 Mexico, as well as in western Texas, on the Staked Plains, and fairly so in Starr 

 County, on the lower Rio Grrande. Mr. W. E. Grover, of Gralveston, writes me 

 that several were shot on the prairie, on the west shore of Galveston Bay, in 

 May, 1890. Some twenty of these birds were feeding among a flock of Red- 

 winged Blackbirds at the time. Although no longer admitted in California 

 lists, this species undoubtedly bred formerly in that State. A set of four eggs, 

 now in the United States National Museum collection, taken by Mr. Xantus de 

 Vesey, near Fort Tejon, California, on May 24, 1858, and entered as those of 

 Corvus carnivorus, are unquestionably referable to this species. 



Mr. William G. Smith, formerly of Loveland, Colorado, writes that the 

 White-necked Raven breeds in the mountains there, and that he obtained two 

 very young birds of this species, which he reared. One of these remained 

 about the house for over a year, and was often visited by a pair of wild birds, 

 which it would accompany sometimes, and stay away for a day or two, and 

 finally it failed to return from one of these visits. 



In suitable localities these birds breed in considerable numbers, for instance, 

 in the vicinity of Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where Lieut. Harry C. Benson, 

 Fourth Cavalry, United States Army, found over sixty of their nests in the 

 season of 1887 and as many as thirteen sets of their eggs in a single day. 



