CORVIDZ, CROWS AND JAYS.—GEN. 94. 161 
but in the adults always intense, inclining to bronzy, purplish or violet rather 
than the uniform green of the last species; @ blackish-brown, sometimes 
quite lustrous. Eastern United States, abundant 
and generally distributed, migratory, gregarious. 
Waus., iii, 44, pl. 21, f.4; Norr., 1,194; Aun., iv. 
oelaceis) DD. JOD. 0 1. «= > . sPURPUREUS: 
Var. aGLzus. (PLATE v, figs. 2,6, 2a, 6a.) Similar; 
averaging smaller, but dimensions inosculating with those 
of the last; bill relatively larger, or at least longer, with 
more attenuated and decurved tip. Florida. Q. baritus 
Bp., 556; Q. agleus Bo., Am. Jour. Se. 1866, 84; Cass., 
Proc. Phila. Acad., 1866, 404; Rrpeway, zbid., 1869, 135. 
Oss. The Quiscalus eneus, lately described as a new 
species by Mr. Ridgway (/. c. 154), appears to be based 
upon a special plumage of Q. purpureus; and since it does 
not prove to be confined, as its describer believed, to any (/ 
particular region, I should judge it not entitled to rank "7% 1% BUS of Quiseati. 
as a geographical variety. The brilliant coloration is that rep resented in Audu- 
bon’s plate, above cited. 
Family CORVIDA. Crows, Jays, etc. 
A rather large and important family, comprising such familiar birds as ravens, 
crows, rooks, 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 web toward the end. The 
tail has 12 rectrices, as usual among higher birds; it varies much 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 on one or 
both sides from the rest of the tarsal envelope by a groove, sometimes naked, 
sometimes filled in by small scales. The bill is stout, about as long as the head or 
shorter, tapering, rather acute, generally notched, with convex culmen; it lacks the 
commissural angulation of the Fringillide and Icteridce, the deep cleavage of the 
Hirundinide, the slenderness of the Certhiide, Sittide, and most small insectiv- 
orous birds. The rictus usually has a few stiffish bristles, and there are others 
about the base of the bill. An essential 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 gen. 97, 98). These last features distinguish the Corvide 
from all our other birds excepting Paride ; the mutual resemblance is here so close, 
that I cannot point out any obvious technical character of external form to distin- 
euish, for example, Cyanuwrus from Lophophanes, or Perisoreus from Parus. But as 
already remarked (p. 79), size is here perfectly distinctive, all the Corvidew being 
much larger birds than the Paride. 
Owing to the uniformity of color in the leading groups of the family, and an 
apparent plasticity of organization in many forms, the number of species is diffi- 
cult to determine, and is very variously estimated by different writers. Mr. G. R. 
Gray admits upwards of two hundred species, which he distributes in fifty genera 
and subgenera; but these figures are certainly excessive, probably requiring reduc- 
KEY TO N. A. BIRDS. 21 
