CROW. 
Crow This familiar American character has 
porins become a standard by which we calculate 
Pi ce ches many conditions, such as ‘‘as black as a 
Allthe year crow,” ‘‘as the crow flies,” ‘‘as sharp as 
a crow,” etc. No description of the bird’s appearance 
is really necessary, but it may as well be said at 
once, that in the fullest sense of the word he is not 
black ! The entire plumage is characterized by an 
iridescent steel-blue or violet. This is particularly no- 
ticeable on the neck, shoulders, wings, and tail. The 
feathers of the under parts are less metallic and lustrous 
than those of the upper parts. The nest is a clumsy 
affair, built of twigs, sticks, bark, grass, etc.; it is gen- 
erally in the crotch of a bough fully thirty feet above 
ground. Eggabeautiful dull green-blue thickly speckled 
with brown; sometimes it is blue-white, or pale blue 
with sparse markings. The bird is distributed from the 
northern United States south to Florida, where it is rep- 
resented by the Florida Crow. 
There is no music in the Crow’s caw nor any in the 
rest of his various calls, but he is a bird with a distince 
language, which one may study with profitable results. 
His harsh mutterings are just desultory talk, his 
er-r-r-r-r-uck bespeaks contentment, his sharp and in- 
cisive caw, caw, caw, means ‘‘ attention!” 
> > > 
Caw! caw! caw! 
and his three fortissimo tones, embracing a distinct majox 
third, mean, I do not know what, but I sometimes think. 
“Come this way quick!” 
J =208' 
Ca - cak- ca-caws 
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