Plate XLV. 
Fig. 4. CORVUS FRUGIVORUS— Common Crow. 
The Grow is found throughout Ohio at all seasons of the year. In the spring and fall very large 
flocks are sometimes seen on their way to summer or winter homes beyond the limits of the state. 
Those that spend the winter with us are commonly found in small flocks, roaming about in search of 
food. The nest for the first brood is generally completed by the second week in April, unless the season 
is unusually cold, and, in July, a second structure is often built, and a second brood hatched. 
LOCALITY : 
In the spring, some individuals separate from the flock in which they have passed the winter, 
and search out a suitable spot for their nest. Others form themselves into a colony, and, taking- 
possession of a piece of woodland, build their houses in neighboring trees. Timberland, bordering upon 
a lake, or upon the bluff bank of a river, is a favorite place for the summer habitation of a colony. 
Isolated nests may be placed in almost any large forest tree, in any kind of woods, from an oak forest 
containing hundreds of acres to the small grove adjoining a barnyard, as the fancy and judgment of the 
birds may permit. 
POSITION : 
The nest usually rests in a perpendicular crotch formed by the branching of the main trunk of the 
tree. Sometimes it is in a perpendicular fork formed by several branches of a large limb ; and, occa- 
sionally, it is built upon a horizontal limb, where it joins the main trunk, or at the point of bifurcation 
into smaller limbs. Its distance from the ground varies from thirty to eighty feet. 
MATERIALS : 
A nest before me, taken from an oak tree, near the Ohio canal, in Pickaway county, is composed as 
follows : The foundation is loosely but firmly constructed of pieces of dead branches and brush, varying 
in length from four inches to two feet, and in diameter from one-eighth to three-eighths of an inch. The 
majority of sticks are about one foot long by one-fourth of an inch in diameter, and quite irregular and 
crooked. Within this coarse foundation is a very compact superstructure, made of pliable weed-stems, 
corn-silk, corn-husk, and soft fibres and roots of various kinds of weeds, the whole felted together in a 
superior manner. The cavity thus formed is nicely rounded and lined with weed-fibres and strips of 
grape-vine bark. The superstructure and lining together is from one and a half to two inches in thick- 
ness. The cavity measures seven inches in diameter by three in depth. The foundation projects beyond 
the rim of the cavity upon one side about one foot; at other places, but a few inches. This irregularity 
corresponds to the shape of the crotch in which it is placed, the least material being adjacent to the 
155 
