414 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —PASSERES — OSCINES. 
from New England, Hudson’s Bay, the Saskatchewan and Rocky Mts. to Texas and the 
Gulf States. 
337. Q. p. agle’us. (Gr. dyAaios, aglaios, splendid.) FLortipA Crow BLACKBIRD. GREEN 
GRACKLE. Birds resident in 8. 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 purpwreus, and other parts in proportion, excepting the bill 
and feet, which are quite as long. (@. baritus, Bd., 1858, nec auet. Q. agleus, Bd., 1866.) 
18. Family CORVID4S: Crows, Jays, etc. 
ae 2) My my 
eo) 
a. ee, 
: Alt f j h a» } 
r 4 
ath abi 
Fic. 266. — European Jackdaw (Corvus monedula.) (From 
Dixon.) 
Cultrivostral Oscines with 10 prima- 
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 lst 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, some- 
times filled in by smali seales. The 
bill is stout, about as jong as the head 
or shorter, tapering, rather acute, generally notched, with convex culmen; it lacks the com- 
missural angulation of the Fringillide and Icteride, the deep cleavage of the Hirundinide, 
the slenderness of the Certhiide, Sittide, and most small insectivorous 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 Gymnocitta and Psilorhinus). 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 distinguish, for example, Cyanocitta from Lophophanes, or Perisoreus from Parus. 
But as already remarked, size is here perfectly distinctive, all the Corvide being much larger 
birds than any of 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 difficult 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. 
