262 LAND-BIRDS AND GAME-BIRDS 
§18. The Corvide include the crows, ravens, rooks, daws, 
pies, and jays. All those of the eastern United States are 
characterized as follows: More than seven inches long; bill 
very stout, but pointed; nostrils concealed ; tarsi scutellate ; 
primaries ten, with the first short and only half as long as the 
second. The sexes are alike in coloration. 
The crows and jays are the most nearly omnivorous of our 
birds, and much the most mischievous. Like the blackbirds, 
they are social, more or less gregarious, noisy, and almost 
wholly unmusical. Moreover, they are partially migratory. 
They build comparatively neat nests of sticks, etc., generally 
in evergreens. Their eggs are most often green (or brown), 
darkly spotted ; with four, five, or sometimes six, ina set. In 
this climate, but one brood is usually raised. 
Our Corvide are divided into tw@subfamilies : 
Corvine or crows (genus J). Wings much longer than the 
tail; feet large and stout; colors dull, or dark and lustrous. 
Garruline or jays (Il and III). Wings not longer than the 
tail; feet comparatively weak; colors dull or bright (chiefly 
blue) ; birds often crested. 
I. CORVUS 
(A) americants.®8 Crow. Common Crow. 
(A common resident throughout New England.) 
(a). Twenty inches long or less. Lustrous black; reflec- 
tions chiefly violet. 
(6). The nest is placed from twenty to eighty feet above 
the ground, commonly in a pine (or a cedar), and often so as © 
8 The Raven (C. corax) does not now occur in New England, unless in the 
extreme North-east. It is twenty-four inches long, lustrous black, “with the 
throat-feathers acute, lengthened, disconnected.” The Fish Crow (C. ossifragus) 
may occasionally occur on the shores of Connecticut. It is sixteen inches long or 
less. Wilson says that their voice is ‘‘ hoarse and guttural, uttered as if something 
stuck in their throat, and varied into several modulations »”? and that they 
frequently sail “without flapping the wings, something in the manner of the 
Raven.” Mr. Wm,Brewster is confident that he saw a Fish Crow at Cambridge 
“on the morning of March 16th, 1875.” 
