70 T H E C R W. 



American birds. Kalm indeed informs ns, that tlie natiinL 

 song is excellent; but this traveller seems not to hav« 

 been long enough in America to have distinguished what 

 were the genuine notes : with us, mimics do not often suc- 

 ceed but in imitations. I have little doubt, however, but 

 that this bird would be fully equal to the song of the 

 nightingale in its whole compass ; but then, from the atten- 

 tion which the Mocker pays to any other sort of disagreeable 

 noise, these capital notes would be always debased by a bad 

 mixture." 



THE CROW (Corvus Cor<mc.) 



Mr. Wilson considers our American Crow identical 

 with the European species. It is eighteen inches and a 

 half long, and three feet two inches in extent ; the colour 

 :^hining glossy blue-black ; bill and legs black. In other 

 particulars it agrees with the European Crow. 



He is the most generally known and least beloved of all 

 cur land birds; having (as Mr. Wilson observes) neither 

 melody of song, nor beauty 0/ plumage, nor excellence of 

 flesh, nor civility of manners to recommend him; on the 

 contrary, he is branded as a thief and a plunderer — a kind 

 of black-coated vagabond, who hovers over the fields of Um 

 in<f^Mrous, fatt^ninjT on their labonra, nnd, by hi"* voraoi^f. 



