GEOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS WEST OF 100TH MERIDIAN. 305 
MEASUREMENTS. 
Wing. 
Tail. 
Bill. 
Tarsus. 
AMERICANUS. 
East of Rocky Mountains : 
Average of 25 specimens. 
12. 36 
7. 24 
1.85 
2. 39 
Largest individual (Massachusetts). 
13. 00 
7. 45 
2.00 
2.60 
Smallest individual (New Mexico). 
11.50 
7. 00 
1.72 
2. 25 
California and Oregon: 
Average of 8 specimens. 
11.78 
7.21 
1. 78 
2. 30 
Largest individual (Fort Crook, Cal.). 
12. 90 
7. 95 
1.95 
2. 23 
Smallest individual (Stockton, Cal.). . 
11.00 
6. 80 
1.60 
2.23 
VAR. CAURIXUS. 
Puget Sound, Alaska: 
Average of 7 specimens. 
10. 82 
6.68 
1.70 
2. 00 
Largest individual (Puget Sound). 
11.60 
7.25 
1. 88 
2.12 
Smallest individual (Alaska). 
VAR. FLORID ANUS. 
10. 25 
6. 00 
1. 68 
1. 95 
Florida: 
Average of 4 specimens. 
Largest individual. 
12. 05 
7.12 
2. 04 
2. 49 
12. 50 
7.25 
2. 10 
2. 50 
Smallest individual.. 
11. 45 
7. 00 
1. 93 
2. 42 
C. carnivoru8, Bartr. American Raven. 
A resident species; more or less common everywhere save in the higher mountain 
districts. 
Pyramid Lake, Nevada, forms a favorite resort for ravens during the summer, as 
the perpendicular and inaccessible cliffs about certain parts of the lake present an 
abundance of sheltered ledges and cavities where they love to place their nests. I 
noticed that in one spot several pairs had built within the space of a few yards, a 
somewhat unusual circumstance, as ravens are not apt to be socially inclined at this 
jjeriod. 
C. americanus, Aud. Common Crow. 
Although by no means as generally distributed in the far West as iu the Eastern 
States, the crow is yet found in probably each and all of the States and Territories 
west of the Mississippi. At all events it has not been wanting in any of those entered 
by our parties. 
Whether its presence in the more remote Western States, as affirmed by many of the 
settlers, is a comparatively recent event, or whether the cultivation of the wilderness 
and the orchards and grain fields that have succeeded the advent of the pioneers have 
simply been the means of bringing the crow into direct contact with man, and so 
of making its presence felt, are questions not easy to determine. I am inclined to 
believe, however, that the crow had made good a squatter’s right to the country long 
before the date of the white man’s possession, and to attribute its present unquestion¬ 
ably greater abundance in sections and territories where at first it was unnoticed to 
the fact of the concentration of the species into civilized districts, where its sagacity 
soon taught it a living was to be had the easiest. 
I have never heard laid to the door of the crow the charge of any serious depre¬ 
dations on the corn and grain fields of the new Territories, and fancy that the kuavish 
tricks of its eastern cousins, that have earned them so bad a name, have not spread so 
far—possibly another reason for supposing that the western birds are not recent migrants 
from the east, else surely they had not left behind such profitable tricks as pulling up 
newly-sprouted corn and other devices of a like nature. Doubtless its natural food 
here is more abundant, and hence, the struggle for existence being less sharp, the crow 
finds it less needful to employ its wits to the end of getting a living at other folks’ 
expense. 
In Oregon, especially east of the mountains, crows are very numerous indeed, and I 
saw many large flocks on the various cattle ranges, as well as, later iu fall, on the stub¬ 
ble fields. Meadowy pasture land and the vicinity of streams are the favorite resorts. 
The only difference between them and the ‘‘Jim Crow” of the east that I could detect 
was, at times, a difference in the cawing note, which, however, as stated above, seemed 
to attach only to individuals, the greater number in the various flocks holding to the 
old-fashioned caw. 
The “ smell for gunpowder” has evidently not been cultivated to the extent that is 
