414 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— PASSERES — OSCINES 



from New Eugland, Hudson's Bay, the Saskatchewan and Rocky Mts. to Texas and the 

 Gulf States. 

 337. Q. P- aglae'us. (Gr. dykaios, aglaios, splendid.) Florida Crow Blackbird. Green 

 Grackle. Birds resident in S. Florida are smaller than average purpureus, with relatively 

 longer and slenderer bill more decurved at tip ; the body lustre chiefly greenish ; head and neck 

 chiefly violaceous steel-blue ; wings and tail steel-blue, becoming violet on the coverts. Aver- 

 aging an inch less in length than purpureus, and other parts in proportion, excepting the bill 

 and feet, which are quite as long. {Q. baritus, Bd., 1858, nee auct. Q. aglceus, Bd., 1866.) 



18. Family CORVID^ : .Crows, Jays, etc. 



Cultrirostral Oscines irith 10 j)vi>na- 

 ries. — A rather large and important 

 family, comprising such familiar birds 

 as ravens, crows, rooks, jackdaws, 

 magpies, jays, with their allies, and a 

 few diverging forms not so well known ; 

 nearly related to the famous birds of 

 paradise. There are 10 primaries, of 

 which the 1st is short, generally about 

 half as long as the 2d, and several 

 outer ones are more or less sinuate- 

 attenuate on the inner wob toward the 

 end. The tail has 12 rectrices, as usual 

 among higher birds; it varies nmch 

 in shape, but is generally rounded — - 

 sometimes extremely graduated, as in 

 the magpie ; and is not forked in any 

 of our forms. The tarsus has scutella 

 in front, separated <m one or both sides 

 from the rest of the tarsal envelope 

 by a groove, sometimes naked, some- 

 FiG. 266.-EuropeanJackdaw(rorr«smo««ZM/a.) (From times fiUed in by small scales. The 

 Dixon.) bill is stout, about as long as the head 



or shorter, tapering, rather acute, generally notched, with convex culmen; it lacks the com- 

 missural angulation of the Fringillidai and Icteridte, the deep cleavage of the Hirundinidce, 

 the slenderness of the Certhiides, SiUidts, and most small insectivorous birds. The rictus 

 usually has a few stifllish bristles, and there are others about the base of the bill. An essentia] 

 character is seen in the dense covering of the nostrils with large long tufts of close-pressed 

 antrorse bristly feathers (excepting, among our forms, in Gymnocitta and Psilorhinus). These 

 last features distinguish the Corvidce from all our other birds excepting Paridce; the mutual 

 resemblance is here so close, that I cannot point out any obvious technical character of external 

 form to distinguish, for example, CyanodUa from Lopihophanes, or Perisoreus from Parus. 

 But as already remarked, size is here perfectly distinctive, all the Corvidce being much larger 

 birds than any of the Paridce. 



Owing to the uniformity of color in the leading groups of the family, and an apparent 

 plasticity of organization in many fonns, the number of species is diflBcult to determine, and 

 is very variously estimated by different writers. Mr. G. R. Gray admits upwards of 200, 

 which he distributes in 50 genera and subgenera; but these figures are certainly excessive, 



