486 



SVSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSERES— OSCINES. 



inches. Bill along cliord of ciilmcii, and tarsus, about 2.50, the hill ranging Tip to 3.00. 

 Varies much in size. Greenland, Labrador, and boreal or arctic specimens generally, are of 

 great size, witli immense bill averaging 3.00 (in the so-called var. principalis). The bill 

 is usually longer and relatively less deep in the American than in the European Raven 

 (^corax proper) ; whole bird more sturdy and robust. The usual wing-formula is : primary 

 4>.3 = 5>2>6>1^8; but these quills grow and moult so gradually the proportionate 

 leugtlis differ much in specimens examined. 9 i^ indistinguishable from ^, though averaging 

 smaller. N. Am. ; but now rare in the U. S. east of the Mississippi, and altogetlier wanting 

 in most localities; Labrador, ranging southward, rarely, along the coast and in mountainous 

 regions to the Middle districts, casually even to South Carolina, Georgia, and A.labama ; very 

 abundant in the West, where the sable plume and the bleaching skeleton, the ominous croak and 

 the Indian war-whoop, are not entirely things of the past. Wherever in the West the Raven 



Head of a very large American Raven, nat. size. (Ad. nat. del. 



C.) 



abounds, the Crow seems to bo supplanted. Nests sometimes in trees, but as a rule on cliffs 

 or in other rocky places, selecting the most inaccessible sites. Eggs 4-8, oftener 5 or 6, about 

 2.00 X J. 30 on an average, ranging from 1.60 X 1-25 to 2.35 X 1-50, though sucli extremes 

 of length are rare ; the color is pale green, often shaded with drab or (dive, and the whole sur- 

 face is profusely dotted, blotched, and clouded with neutral tints, purplisli, and various shades 

 of brown. 



Regarding the vexed question of relationship of the American to the European Raven, I 

 have throughout successive eds. of the Key, and in other works, since 1872, contended against 

 specific distinction; and I observe tliat the two forms are united in one by such high autliority 

 as that of Dr. Sharpe, in the British Museum Cat. iii, 1877, p. 14. But we may have gone 

 too far in ignoring some differences, particularly in average size, which appear to exist, and I 

 am now billing to take tlie safest middle course of recognizing subspecific distinction. Our 

 bird has plenty of names from which to choose. The earliest of these is C. carnironis Bar- 

 tram, 1791, against wiiich certain technical objections have been alleged, tliougli it was 



