Table Of Content572 THE WILSON JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY • Vol. 118, No. 4, December2006
ers to look for additional cases of swinging Taxonomy of the Striped-headed Tanager, genus
locomotion without use ofthe wings and feet, Spindalis (Aves: Thraupidae) of the West Indies.
in both the Puerto Rican Spindalis and in oth- Wilson Bulletin 109:561-594.
Isler, M. L. AND P. R. Isler. 1987. The tanagers: nat-
er species. ural history, distribution, and identification.
Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Law, J. E. 1926. Green-tailed Towhee qualifies in in-
We thank G. J. Breckon for identifying vegetation Leck,telCl.igeF.nce19t7e2st.. OCbosnedrovrat2i8o:n1s33o-f13b4ir.ds at cecropia
mentioned in this manuscript, and A. R. Lewis forre- trees in Puerto Rico. Wilson Bulletin 84:498-500.
viewing this note. The comments ofthree anonymous Lee, D. S. and M. Walsh-McGehee. 1998. White-
reviewers also improved the paper. tailed Tropicbird (Phaethon lepturus). The Birds
ofNorth America, no. 353.
LITERATURE CITED Potter, E. F. 2003. Male-female interactions by Yel-
low-bellied Sapsuckers on wintering grounds.
American Ornithologists’ Union. 1998. Checklistof Chat 67:107-109.
North American birds, 7th ed. American Orni- Raffaele, H. A. 1989. A guide to the birds ofPuerto
thologists’ Union, Washington, D.C. Rico and the Virgin Islands, rev. ed. Princeton
Brazil, M. 2002. Common Raven Corvus corax at University Press, Princeton, New Jersey.
play; records from Japan. Ornithological Science Vogel, H. H., Jr. 1950. Observationsonsocialbehav-
1:150-152. ior in Turkey Vultures. Auk 67:210-267.
Bunkley-Williams, L. andE. H. Williams, Jr. 2000. Zeefer, A. and U. M. Lindhe Norberg. 2002. Leg
Unusual nesting and occurrence records for Gua- morphology and locomotion in birds: require-
ma, Puerto Rico, 1975-1999. El Pitirre 12:92-94. ments for force and speed during ankle flexion.
Garrido, O. H., K. C. Parkes, and R. Sutton. 1997. Journal ofExperimental Biology 206:1085-1097.
The Wilson Journal ofOrnithology 118(4):572—573, 2006
American Crow Caches Rabbit Kits
Justin J. Shew1’2
—
ABSTRACT. Forcorvids, the decision to cache is time, time of day, perishability, and klepto-
a complex behavior likely influenced by many inter- parasitism (Cristol 2001). American Crows
acting factors. On 8 April 2004, I observed an Amer- are known to cache various nuts, prey (inver-
ican Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) caching eastern tebrate and vertebrate), eggs, dung, and car-
cbiotttonnetsatilon(SytlhveilMaigsussofulroiridSatantues)Ukniitvsetraskietnyfcraommpausrabi-n rion items for later consumption (Phillips
Springfield, Missouri. The crow cached at least three 1978, Conner and Williamson 1984, Kilham
kits andflewawaywithatleastoneother.Cacheswere 1989, Verbeek and Caffrey 2002). Caches are
coveredwithdead leavesandlandscape mulch. During sometimes covered with debris, substrate, or
the ensuing 3-day period, some caches disappeared, leaves (Phillips 1978, Conner and Williamson
bwmyeerneltoecpdaatritcioaansl.elyTooefatmceaync,hkoinrnogwwelnreuedmgmeeor,ovuetshdisrtoaibsabitdthiefkfifetirsresntftrdnooecmaur--a 198O4n, 8KiAlprhialm20109849)at.approximately 17:00 CST
single nest, and it is one ofthe few documented cases (18°C) while walking across the Missouri State
of cache-moving by American Crows. Received 29 University campus in Springfield, Missouri (37°
July 2005, accepted24 April 2006. 11' N, 93° 16' W), I observed the caching be-
havior of an American Crow. I heard animal
distress calls, which came from an almost hair-
Many different factors influence caching less baby mammal that the crow (approximately
behavior in American Crows (Corvus bra- 20-30 m away) was handling in its bill. Al-
chyrhynchos including food value, handling though this bill-manipulation period was short
),
(—5-10 sec), it seemed to injure the animal se-
verely and silence its distress calls. The crow
fiel21dDC,eupMrtrO,ento6f5a8dB0di4ro,elsoUsg:SyA,1.0M4issBeolulriCaStnaytoenUnRidv..,,TSrparbiuncgo- awassmahlalncdolnicnrgettehesipgrney(—wh1imletpalel,rc—h2e5d ocnmtwoipdeo)f
Canyon, CA 92679, USA; e-mail: on a campus lawn. I slowly approached the
[email protected] crow to within —5-8 m, and it dropped to the
) 1
SHORT COMMUNICATIONS 573
ground, quickly picked up surrounding dead its posterior missing. This half-eaten cache was
leaves and sticks, and placed them overthe prey 5-10 m away from cache#2. At 14:00, the half-
item (cache #1). I uncovered the cache and de- eaten kit was in the same location, but on 1
termined that the mammal was a rabbit kit. I re- April, the kit remains were gone.
covered the cache, leaving it in its original lo- To my knowledge, this is the first obser-
cation, and continued to watch the crow from vation of an American Crow caching eastern
approximately 30-40 m away. cottontail kits and one ofthe few documented
The crow flew —20 m and attended a kit observations of a cache being stored at mul-
apparently cached earlier (cache #2) in a tiple locations (cache #2). The kits were 10
mulch pile under a landscape tree. The crow cm long and may have represented valuable
then moved this cache to another mulch pile prey items for a crow, particularly given the
about 5-10 m away, where it carefully picked cottontail litter size of four to five kits (Whi-
up individual pieces of mulch and laid them taker 1996). Similar sightings have entailed a
overthe cache. Subsequently, the crow pecked crow in Florida that moved a cached snake
around within 0-2 m ofthe cache while pick- (Kilham 1989) and a crow in Tennessee that
ing up other bits of mulch and quickly drop- cached four live gizzard shad (Dorosoma ce-
ping them. The crow then flew back to the pedianum) in beach sand (Phillips 1978). Also
concrete sign, probed into the ground with its similar to my observations was that of crows
bill, and pulled out an eastern cottontail (Syl- on a Texas university campus caching pecans
vilagus floridanus from a rabbit nest. From and then tearing up the nearby grass afterhid-
there, the crow flew a few meters as the kit ing the caches (Conner and Williamson 1984).
gave distress calls; once the kit became silent, The purpose of these post-caching behaviors
the crow cached it (cache #3) in another remains unclear; possibilities include creation
mulch pile by covering it with mulch and de- of landmarks that help individuals locate their
bris. Soon the crow flew back to the cottontail caches, or it may serve to disguise caching
nest, pulled out another kit, and flew north- behavior from potential kleptoparasites. My
west beyond my view. After a few minutes, a observation illustrates some of the complexi-
crow flew from the southwest to the rabbit ties of crow behavior, and indicates that more
nest, pulled out another kit, and flew offin the field studies are needed to determine factors
same direction as before. that lead to and affect caching behavior.
Afteranotherfew minutes hadpassed, acrow ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
flew to the rabbit nest again and probed the nest
several times, pulling out only nesting material I thank C. M. Smith for encouraging submission of
this short communication and three anonymous refer-
(dead grass). From there, it went to the first kit ees whose comments improved the manuscript.
(cache #1), uncovered it, and began tearing up
LITERATURE CITED
and eating the prey. At approximately 17:20,
this crow flew away and no crows returned for Conner, R. N. andJ. H. Williamson. 1984.Foodstor-
—5 min. I then confirmed the locations ofcach- ingby AmericanCrows. Bulletin oftheTexasOr-
es #2 and #3, finding that kits in both caches nithological Society 17:13-14.
were still alive and thoroughly covered with Cristol, D. A. 2001. American Crows cache lesspre-
ferred walnuts. Animal Behaviour 62:331-336.
mulch. I also searched other mulch piles in the Kilham, L. 1989. TheAmericanCrowandCommonRa-
area, but found no other caches. At 18:45 the ven. Texas A&M University Press, College Station.
same day, the two caches were still in the same Phillips, R. A. 1978. Common crow observed catch-
locations. ing living fish. The Migrant 49:85-86.
On 9 April at 11:00, I returned to the site to Verbeek, N. A. M. and C. Caffrey. 2002. American
verify the locations of caches #2 and #3. The Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos). The Birds of
North America, no. 647.
kits in caches #3 (closest to the cottontail nest) Whitaker, J. O., Jr. 1996. National Audubon Society
and#2 were gone. I scannedothernearbymulch field guide to North American mammals. Alfred
piles and found a cached kit with a majority of A. Knopf, New York.
