THE AMERICAN CROW. 
89 
immediately after it lias brought its young abroad, when the family remains 
undispersed for some weeks. 
Wherever our Crow is abundant, the Raven is rarely found, and vice versa. 
From Kentucky to New Orleans, Ravens are extremely rare, whereas in 
that course you find one or more Crows at every half mile. On the con- 
trary, far up the Missouri, as well as on the coast of Labrador, few Crows 
are to be seen, while Ravens are common. I found the former birds equally 
scarce in Newfoundland. 
Omnivorous like the Raven, our Crow feeds on fruits, seeds, and vege- 
tables of almost every kind ; it is equally fond of snakes, frogs, lizards, and 
other small reptiles ; it looks upon various species of worms, grubs and 
insects as dainties ; and if hard pressed by hunger, it will alight upon and 
devour even putrid carrion. It is as fond of the eggs of other birds as is the 
Cuckoo, and, like the Titmouse, it will, during a paroxysm of anger, break 
in the skull of a weak or wounded bird. It delights in annoying its twilight 
enemies the Owls, the Opossum, and the Racoon, and will even follow by 
day a fox, a wolf, a panther, or in fact any other carnivorous beast, as if 
anxious that man should destroy them for their mutual benefit. It plunders 
the fields of their superabundance, and is blamed for so doing, but it is 
seldom praised when it chases the thieving Hawk from the poultry-yard. 
The American Crow selects with uncommon care its breeding place. You 
may find its nest in the interior of our most dismal swamps, or on the sides 
of elevated and precipitous rocks, but almost always as much concealed from 
the eye of man a*s possible. They breed in almost every portion of the 
Union, from the Southern Cape of the Floridas to the extremities of Maine, 
and probably as far westward as the Pacific Ocean. The period of nestling 
varies from February to the beginning of June, according to the latitude of 
the place. Its scarcity on the coast of Labrador, furnishes one of the reasons 
that have induced me to believe it different from the Carrion Crow of 
Europe? ; for there I met with several species of birds common to both 
countries, which seldom enter the United States farther than the vicinity 
of our most eastern boundaries. 
The nest, however, greatly resembles that of the European Crow, as much, 
in fact, as that of the American Magpie resembles the nest of the European. 
It is formed externally of dry sticks, interwoven with grasses, and is within 
thickly plastered with mud or clay, and lined with fibrous roots and feathers. 
The eggs are from four to six, of a pale greenish colour, spotted and clouded 
with purplish-grey and brownish-green. In the Southern States they raise 
two broods in the season, but to the eastward seldom more than one. Both 
sexes incubate, and their parental care and mutual attachment are not sur 
passed by those of any other bird. Although the nests of this species often 
Vol. IV. 12 
