88 
THE CONDOR 
I VOL. V 
Paso, Texas, where they commonly remain throughout the winter, I found them 
up to the last of December one of the most abundant and conspicuous of winter 
birds, associating in noisy crow-like flocks around the outskirts of town, neighbor- 
ing stock yards and ranches. In such places they show a bold intelligence not 
found in the wary crow, and are always ready to co-operate with man in any such 
mutual benefit scheme as the disposal of garbage, the removal of superfluous flesh 
and grease from hides hung out to dry. or the saving of grain that has been scat- 
tered along the roads. On a cold morning I have seen a dozen of them in the pig 
pen, sharing the breakfast of the pigs, pushing and crowding for the scattered 
corn in a very frank and business-like way. Along the suburban streets of El 
Paso they would walk aside to let me pass with my gun, eying me shrewdly as 
much as to say, “It’s against the law to shoot inside the city limits,’’ but out on the 
mesa they would keep well beyond shot gun range and sound an alarm at the first 
sight of a distant hunter. 
In spring they scatter out over the 
desert valleys and become silent and shy 
while preoccupied with home duties, and 
then any old bunch of sticks in the top 
of a tall yucca may contain a set of their 
brown spotted eggs. From below, the 
nests usually have an ancient tumble- 
down appearance caused by straggling 
remains of previous nests, but from 
above they are found to be well built up 
each year when occupied. 
In the accompanying cut from a pho- 
tograph taken near Marathon, Texas, 
May 12, 1901, the nest shown was about 
twelve feet from the ground. By get- 
ting on top of the ‘hack’ I could look 
into its deep cup-shaped cavity where 
the five eggs rested snugly on a soft lin- 
ing of yucca fiber, deer hair and rabbit 
fur, and was surprised to find the in- 
side so well built in contrast to its rough 
CORVUS CRYPTOLEUCUS ON YUCCA RADiosA AT extcrior. Tlic old bird had slipped 
VALENTINE, TEXAS Eom tlie ne.st as we approached and 
quietly disappeared but was .soon seen again with her mate watching us from 
distant yucca tops. Before we were twenty rods from the nest she was back 
in it again carefully inspecting damages. 
Later in the season when the young were out they were all as noisy as crows, 
whether lined up on a corral fence, gathered in a family circle around the remains 
of a slaughtered beef, or chasing grasshoppers and lizards in the open valley. The 
abundant and juicy fruit of the cactus, Opuntia, Cereus, and Mammalaria, supplies 
part and probably a large part of their food during Ju^q August, and September, 
enabling the ravens as well as some of the mammals and even men to make long 
journeys into waterless valleys with comparative comfort. 
Out in one of the driest, hottest valleys of the Great Bend country of western 
Texas a pair of big Mexican ravens came beating over the valley ahead of our 
outfit one day, when they were suddenly attacked by two pair of the smaller. 
