GREAT CROW-BLACKBIRD. 193 



The note of this species is louder than that of the com- 

 mon kind, and some of its jarring tones are said to bear 

 a resemblance to the noise of a watchman's rattle. They 

 are only heard to sing in the spring, and their concert, 

 though inclining to melancholy, is not altogether disa- 

 greeable. Their nests are built in company, on reeds 

 and bushes, in the neighbourhood of marshes and ponds ; 

 they lay about 5 eggs which are whitish, blotched and 

 lined nearly all over with dusky olive. 



The general appearance of the male is black, but the head and 

 neck' have bluish-purple reflections; the rest presents shades of steel- 

 blue, excepting the back, rump, and middling wing-coverts which 

 are glossed with copper green ; the vent, inferior tail coverts, and 

 thighs are plain black. The tail, wedge-shaped, is nearly 8 inches in 

 length, and like that of the common species, is capable of assuming 

 a boat-shaped appearance. Iris pale yellow. The bill and feet black. 

 The female is of a light dusky brown, with some feeble greenish 

 reflections, and beneath of a dull brownish white. The young, at 

 first, resemble the female, but have the irids brown, and gradually 

 acquire their appropriate plumage. 



17 



