THE CONDOR 
Vol. XV 
f.O 
pate, or to mark the instant change in pitch from the shrill uproar of impending 
(loom to the guttural notes of baffled retreat. The Falcon has a nasty temper at 
best, and if she dare not vent her spite on you, she will fall upon the first wight 
who crosses her path. Woe betide the luckless Barn Owl who flaps forth from 
his polluted den hard by to learn the cause of the disturbance. I have seen such 
bowled into the sage in a trice, and Kelly declares that he has several times seen 
them struck dead. At such times also the Raven is put on trial for his life. In 
spite of their close association, there is evidently an ancient grudge between 
these birds. Whether or no the ebony saint be at fault, I cannot tell, but certain 
it is that if a Raven blunders near in the hour of the Falcon’s high displeasure, he 
is fearfully beset. The Raven is an adept at wing-play himself, and the Falcon’s 
thunderbolt is met with a deft evasion which reminds one of the best sword-play. 
But the Raven takes no pleasure in 
it. His eyes start with terror, and 
while he has no time for utterance 
himself, the distressed cries of his 
mate proclaim the danger he is in. 
This close association of Falcon and 
Raven at nesting tiiue is the strangest 
element in the lives of both of them. 
To Ije sure their rec[uirements of nest- 
ing sites are similar; but it is more 
than that which induces tlie birds to 
nest within a hundred vards of each 
oth.er in the same canyon, when 
neighboring or distant canyons offer- 
ing as excellent sites are empty. So 
constant indeed is this association that 
when one finds the Raven’s nest, lie 
says, “Well, now, where is the Fal- 
con’s?”' Of the entire number of 
Raven’s nests which came under my 
personal notice this year, seven were 
thus associated with the Falcon s in 
the same canyon, and the remain- 
ing three were within a quarter 
of a mile of Falcon’s in neigh- 
boring canyons separated by a single 
ridge. And it is impossible to tell 
from the stage of incubation readied which bird is the follower. In two in- 
stances, nests containing young Ravens were associated with Falcons whose eggs 
had not vet hatched ; but in another notably close instance, the Raven laid her 
first egg on the day the Falcon’s eggs were pipped. The remaining instances 
were neutral : i. e., nests of both species contained eggs. The only guess we 
dare hazard is that both birds reap advantages of warning in case of hostile ap 
proach. 
Concurrent with this association is the annual, or at least occasional, shift- 
ing of sites on the part of both species. This shifting is of course quickened by 
persecution. If unsuccessful in raising a brood one year the bird will tiw another 
situation, but always, except in extreme instances, in the same canyon or gen- 
eral locality. In this way the Falcon appropriates the site once occupied by Ra- 
7Fig. 13. PiR.^XE OF THE Clouds 
