May, x9oo I THE CONDOR 5? to Springville Canon and Strawberry Peak in April ?899 was unsuccessful on account of snow, though small flocks and single birds had been reported in the vicinity in the fall of t898 and the winters of t898 and t899. Following this eamc Hines' three days' trip in March, t9oo, to the head of American Fork Canon. Several birds were seen but were very wild and shy. Adams in the vicinity of Pleasant Valley Junction reported birds in some abundance in early March, ?9oo, and breeding. Hines of American Fork Canon reported the birds common, ex- cepting in breeding season. They are usually in flocks and are noisy, bold and rapacious. I, iving in a two-story house, a relic of the once prosperous days of the Miller mine, he once set some rat poison baits on the second floor near the stairs. Returning after a short absence he found several dead "Camp Robbers" which had flown up- stairs to get the bait. He once caught a bold fellow in his hand while eating dinner. It struggled, as Mr. Hines thought, to get away, but happening to put his other hand containing some bread near it, the bird rapidly ate until it could hold no more. The I)unsden-Wilkin expedition to the mountains north-west of American Fork Canon, Utah Co. March ?5-3?, I9oo, proved to be successful. This party secured a nest with one egg, cap- turing the male parent on the nest by hand, and also a nest and four eggs and later a nest with three young and par- ent. The first nest containing one egg was found March 23 ill a black balsam tree about fifty feet high in thd prong- ed fork of a limb growing outwardly, and then ripward. The nest was about three feet from the body of the tree and sixteen feet from the ground. The nest was in rather plain view though overhung with a thick canopy of dense boughs. The situation was about 7,000 feet altitude and about ?,ooo feet below the ridge of the mountain on the side of a sheltered gulch facing the south. The nest and four eggs were found March 23, x9oo, about ?,ooo feet from the first nest and was also in a black balsam tree 7o feet high and thirty inches in diameter at its base. The nest was thirty feet from the ground, saddled on a horizontal limb about sev- en feet from the body of the tree. This nest could only be seen from one posi- tion on the ground. The set was col- lected on March 28. Many attempts were nmde to secure the parent alive, but it always left the nest asthe collect- or had his hand nearly upon it. The nest contained four eggs when found and after five days had elapsed, incuba- tion appeared but slight. March 28 the final attempt to secure the parent was made, but without success. As she left the nest Mr. Wilkin shot at her, but missed. The set was then secured with nest. It will thus be seen how extremely uncertain is the finding of the nests of Clarke's Crow in any locality. Where the birds are plentiful one year they are absolutely wanting the next, owing to absence or presence of food supply. Roaming over the country in bands, stealing, prying, inquisitive, noisy "sol- diers of fortune," they become locally known as "camp robbers," "pinon bird" or "mutton bird." Some one of these names will be instantly recogniz- ed by anyone who lives at various sea- sons in the hills of Utah. It is partly on account of this nomadic tendency and partly because they breed so early, while the ranges are enveloped in mantles of deepest snow, that their nests are so difficult to locate. In fact, the absence of snow this season,--an unusual one here--is what rendered progression over the hills possible and the locating and taking of the eggs a possibility. In their noisy, roving rambles the Clarke's Crows are singularly like an- other rare bird,--the Carolina Paroquet of Florida and southern border states. James Preston of this city has often told ?ne how art immense flock of Nutcrack-
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