338, 
339. 
416 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — PASSERES — OSCINES. 
C. co/rax. (Gr. xopag, korax, Lat. corax, a croaker— the raven. Fig. 268.) AMERICAN 
Raven. Feathers of throat somewhat stiffen engthened, pointed, lying loose from one 
another; those of neck with gray downy bases, as elsewhere on the body. Color entirely lus- 
trous black, with chiefly purplish and violet burnishing. Length about 2 feet — at least over 
20 inches; expanse of wings 4 or 43 feet — much over a yard. Wing about 14 feet— at least 
over 15 inches. Tail about 10 inches ; its feathers graduated 1.50-2.50 inches. Bill along chord 
of culmen, and tarsus, about 2.50. Varies much in size. Greenland and Labrador specimens 
are of great size, with immense bill touching 3.00. The bill is usually longer and relatively less 
deep in the American than in the European raven; whole bird more sturdy and robust. The 
usual wing-formula is: primary 4>3=5 >2>6>1=8,; but these quills grow and moult 
so gradually the proportionate lengths differ much in specimens examined. The ? is undistin- 
guishable from the ¢, though averaging smaller. N. Amer. ; but now rare in the U. S. east 
of the Mississippi, and altogether wanting in most of the States ; Labrador, ranging southward, 
Fic. 268. —Head of a very large American Raven, nat. size. (Ad nat. del. E.C.) 
rarely, along the coast to the Middle districts; very abundant in the West, where the sable 
plume and the bleaching skeleton, the ominous croak and the Indian war-whoop, are not yet 
things of the past. Wherever in the West the raven abounds, the crow seems to be sup- 
planted. Nests high in trees and on cliffs, selecting the most inaccessible places. Eggs 4-8, 
oftener 4-5, about 2.00 x 1.30, greenish, dotted, blotched and clouded with neutral tints, pur- 
plish- and blackish-browns. 
C. eryptolew/cus. (Gr. xpurrds, kruptos, erypted or hidden; Aevkds, lewkos, white.) WHITE- 
NECKED RAVEN. Throat-feathers as in C. corax; but bases of the feathers of neck snowy- 
white. Smaller than the raven; about as large as a good-sized crow, and generally taken for 
one in those regions where it occurs with the raven, the difference between them being obvious 
in life; the accounts of ‘ crows” in some regions where C. americanus does not occur being 
based upon the presence of C. eryptoleucus. Southwestern U. S., Llano Estacado and higher 
Rio Grande of Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and portions of California. 
