488 
BIRDS CF NEW MEXIOO 
almost constantly about the top of Pecos Baldy and also on the Truchas Peaks, 
from 12,000 to 13,000 feet (Ligon).] They were seen in early August, 1903, at 11,000 
feet below Pecos Baldy, and a feather was found on the top of Pecos Baldy, 12,600 
feet (Bailey). The next year on July 24 a party of six were seen sailing around the 
crest of the Taos Mountains at least 13,000 feet above ocean level; from July 28 to 
October 24, 1913, a flock of 10 to 15 were daily visitors at Koehler Junction (Kalm- 
bach). [On August 27, 1917, many were seen between Las Cruces and Socorro 
(Ligon); and on September 29 and October 4, 1916, some were seen at Stateline and 
near Zuni (Skinner).] The snows of early fall drive the birds from these extreme 
altitudes, though as late as November 1, 1903, two were seen flying at timberline 
near Twining (Surber). 
The winter is spent in the valleys and foothills for the most part below 7,500 feet. 
Three were seen at Albuquerque on Christmas, 1902 (Harman); they were abundant 
at about 7,000 feet near Las Vegas, January 6, 1S47 (Abert); and they spend the 
winter regularly around Fort Wingate at about the same altitude (Shufeldt). In 
the region of the Carlsbad Bird Reserve they were fairly common in January, 1915; 
and noted during the winter of 1915-16; [on the Rio Grande Bird Reserve (Elephant 
Butte), one was seen November 27, 1916 (Willett) ].—W. W. Cooke. 
Nest. —Usually on cliffs in inaccessible places, in rim rock and box canyons, a 
mass of sticks, lined variously with cottonwood bark, moss, cattle hair, and wool. 
Eggs: 5 to 7, pale green, olive, or drab, the whole surface profusely dotted, blotched, 
and clouded with purplish and various shades of brown. 
Food. —Mainly carrion, but also young birds, eggs, locusts, grasshoppers, and 
other insects. 
General Habits. —Scattered though they are in the breeding 
season, one pair perhaps to a desert range, the large black American 
Ravens are not infrequently seen when one is traveling through the 
plateau mesa country or camping near rocky canyons in the moun¬ 
tains. Sometimes you are notified by the swish of big wings and a 
hoarse croaking kar'r that one is passing; sometimes you see 
one launch from a cliff, spreading its wide black wings as it drops down 
the wall into the canyon; and some day, perhaps, you may be fortunate 
enough to see one circling around in the sky, rising higher and higher, 
all the time uttering its rhythmical cawing. 
In the breeding season you scan the cliffs with your field glasses for 
their nests and the discovery of one is as notable as the finding of an 
Eagle’s aerie. A characteristic one at the north end of the Staked 
Plains that we located near the top of a cliff was probably two or 
three hundred feet above the foot of the wall, almost hidden in a niche 
of dark red sandstone and roofed by a projecting rock so that it could 
be reached neither from above nor below. All but one of the nests 
found by Mr. Ligon have been on cliffs, the exception being one in the 
top of a Douglas fir, in the Sacramento Mountains. Three other nests 
in trees were found by a hunter in the same locality, there apparently 
being no suitable cliffs in the region. 
Below Pecos Baldy, near our Jack Creek camp at 11,000 feet, 
from which, in July, 1903, we saw five of the great birds circling around 
