206 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.86 



accounts in part for the small wing measurement, and because of this 

 condition and the large bill these are called hrachyrhytwhos. In two 

 taken on the Cumberland River two miles west of Indian Mound on 

 October 27, a male has the wing not yet fully grown, while the cul- 

 men measures 50 mm. A female has the wing 305 and the culmen 

 from base 48.5. "While intermediate these two are called hrachy- 

 rhynchos. 



The recent pi-oposal of Dr. Wilhelm Meise ^^ and Dr. C. E. Hell- 

 mayr ^^ to give the American crow status as a geographic race of 

 CorvuH corone, the carrion crow of Europe, is one that does not to me 

 seem proper. After a field experience gained through three journeys 

 in western Eui-ope, I am convinced that the resemblance between these 

 two birds is of a generic nature and that specifically they are distinct. 

 Their resemblance is found principally in that the two are generally 

 similar in form, are black in plumage, are alike in size, and have more 

 or less the same habits and ecological status. In the field, the voice 

 of the carrion crow is more like that of a itiven, quite distinct from 

 that of our crow, so different in fact that in May 1938 in Switzerland 

 I did not recognize the call of a carrion crow when heard for the first 

 time in four years as that of a crow until it had been repeated several 

 times. In flight the wing action of the carrion crow also is different, 

 the wings having a wider sweep above and below the longitudinal axis 

 of the body. Ordinarily, too, in the European species the tips of the 

 primaries in flight are more widely separated, tlie wing appearance 

 being that of a raven. In the hand, the outer primaries are actually 

 narrower than in the American crow. In view of all this and of the 

 geogi-aphic separation of the two, it appears to me that they should 

 be considered specifically distinct. 



CORVUS BRACHYRHYNCHOS PAULUS Howell: Southern Crow 



A male secured near Hickory Withe on April 21 identified as 

 paulus is distinctly intermediate toward the northern form, with the 

 wing 305 and the culmen from base 50.2 mm. While this specimen 

 is here called paulm, further material may demonstrate that the 

 breeding crows throughout extreme western Tennessee are best called 

 hrachyrhytwhos. A female from 5 miles north of Waynesboro on 

 Green River, with the wing 300 and the culmen from base 44.5 nmi, 

 has the small bill of paulm. A male from 7 miles southwest of Cross- 

 ville on Birds Creek is intermediate, with the wing 309 and tlie culmen 

 from base 50.5 mm. It is identified as pauJu.s with some reservation. 



■'"' .Tourn. fiir Orn., 1928, p. 8. 



" Fipld :Mi].«. Nat. Hist., zool. ser., vol. IS, pt. 7, 1934, p. 3. 



