FISH CROW. 217 



amusing to see with what steady watchfulness they 

 hover over the water in search of their precarious food, 

 having, in fact, all the traits of the Gull ; but they subsist 

 more on accidental supplies, than by any regular system 

 of fishing. On land they have sometimes all the famil- 

 iarity of the Magpye, hopping up on the backs of cattle, in 

 whose company they, no doubt, occasionally meet with a 

 supply of insects when other sources fail. They are also 

 regular in their attendance on the fishermen of New Jer- 

 sey for the purpose of gleaning up the refuse of the fish. 

 They are also less shy and suspicious than the common 

 Crow, and, showing no inclination for plundering the 

 corn-fields, are rather friends than enemies to the farmer. 

 They appear near Philadelphia, from the middle of 

 March to the beginning of June, during the season of the 

 shad and herring fishery. 



They breed in New Jersey in tall trees, and have a 

 brood of 4 or 5 young, with whom they are seen in com- 

 pany in the month of July. 



The Fishing Crow is 16 inches long, and 33 in alar extent. The 

 chin is bare of feathers around the base of the lower mandible. 

 The eye very small. Irids dark hazel. Claws black, sharp, ^and 

 long, the hind one largest. Male and female much alike. 



This species bears some resemblance to the Rook in general ap- 

 pearance, and by the bare space near the bill, but it is smaller, lono-er 

 tailed, and wholly different in its habits and mode of living. The 

 gregarious character of the Rook is very remarkable ; more than a 

 dozen nests may be counted in the same tree, and some scores are 

 seen in the same vicinity. They very seldom remove from the 

 places thus chosen, and if a straggling pair attempt to intrude into 

 the rookery, as they are apt to do from their instinctive dislike of 

 solitude, severe contests ensue. In the year 1783, a pair of these 

 birds, driven from settling in the general resort in the neighbourhood 

 of the exchange at Newcastle, took refuge, at length, on the spire of 

 that building, and though still interrupted by the neighbouring Rooks, 

 they contrived to fix their nest on the top of the vane, and undis- 

 turbed by the noise of the populace below, they reared their young, 

 19 



