Bendire.} 124 pjarch21, 



they are all open, like those of the common crow. They rarely build 

 in high trees, usually in birches or junipers, and often also in willow 

 thickets, at from twelve to twenty feet from the ground. They are 

 but very little smaller than the common crow, and many are fully as 

 laro-e. The only specimen accessible to me at present measures as 

 follows: length 17.75, wing 12.60, tail 7.50, a ?. If it were not for 

 their totally different habits, I could see no really good reasons for 

 separating this species. Their eggs are not distinguishable from 

 those of the common crow. They commence breeding here about 

 May 1, at Fort Lapwai about April 15. The usual number of eggs 

 in a nest is five, very rarely six. ■ 



73. Picicorvus columbianus (Bonap.). Clarke's Crow. 



Moderately common during the winter and spring months ; none 

 found about Camp Harney during the rest of the year. They 

 probably retire with their young to the higher mountain ranges as 

 soon as the latter are well able to fly. This species breeds here very 

 early in the season. In the spring of 1876 I found several of their 

 nests; of two found April 22, 1876, one contained three young but a 

 few days old, the other, one young bird and two eggs on the point of 

 hatching, one with the shell already cracked. Both nests were in 

 pine trees. One which I brought away was placed on the extremity 

 of a branch about twenty-five feet from the ground, and well pro- 

 tected from view by longer branches. It is quite bulky, but appears 

 small as viewed from below. The nest rested on a platform of small 

 sticks of white sage placed on the pine branches, and is composed of 

 dry grasses, vegetable fibres, and the fine inner bark of Juniper us 

 occidentalis. The whole is well woven together, and makes quite a 

 warm comfortable structure. The outer diameter of the nest is eight 

 and a half inches, the inner four and a half; depth inside three and a 

 quarter inches, outside five inches. The two eggs measure, respect- 

 ively, 1.22 X «95 inches and 1.20 X -90 inches. Ground color light 

 grayish green, speckled and blotched with grayish, principally about 

 the larger end. On the smaller egg the spots are finer and more 

 evenly distributed. At other times a very noisy bird, when breeding 

 it keeps exceedingly quiet, and will almost allow itself to be captured 

 on the nest rather than to leave it; they are devoted parents. They 

 seem to prefer the edges of the pine timber to the interior of the 

 forests. The stomachs of several that I opened contained nothing 

 but shelled pine seeds, forming an oily white mass. As the winter of 

 1875 and '76 was a very severe one, I think, that in ordinary seasons, 



