CROWS. 271 



bill very stout, but pointed ; nostrils concealed ; tarsi scutel- 

 late ; 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, in a set. 

 In this climate, but one brood is usually raised. 



Our Corvidce are divided into two subfamilies : 



Corvince or Crows (genus I). Wings much longer than 

 the tail ; feet large and stout ; colors dull, or dark and lus- 

 trous. 



Garrulince or Jays (II and III). Wings not longer than 

 the tail; feet comparatively weak; colors dull or bright 

 (chiefly blue) ; birds often crested. 



I. CORVUS. 



A. AMEKICANUS. 103 Crow. Common Crow. A common 

 resident throughout New England.* 



108 The Raven (C. corax principalis) regularly visits the interior of north- 

 does not now occur in New England, ern New England in late autumn and 

 unless in the extreme northeast." It winter, and it has been twice taken in 

 is twenty-four inches long, lustrous Massachusetts within the past twenty 

 black, " with the throat-feathers acute, years. It doubtless still breeds spar- 

 lengthened, disconnected." The Fish ingly along the coast of Maine. W. B. 

 Crow (C. ossifragus) may occasionally b The Fish Crow is now known to 

 occur on the shores of Connecticut. It breed in small numbers in southern 

 is sixteen inches long or less. Wilson Connecticut, and one specimen has been 

 says that their voice is "hoarse and taken in Massachusetts atWareham, 

 guttural, uttered as if something stuck July 16, 1884, by Mr. E. A. Bangs. 

 in their throat, and varied into sev- W. B. 



eral modulations," and that they fre- * An abundant spring and autumn 

 quently sail "without flapping the migrant and very, common summer res- 

 wings, something in the manner of the ident, also wintering numerously along 

 Raven." Mr. Wm. Brewster is confi- the coast from Maine to Connecticut, 

 dent that he saw a Fish Crow at Cam- and more sparingly, but still very gen- 

 bridge " on the morning of March 16th, erally, in the less wild and elevated 

 1875." 6 parts of the interior, at least in Massa- 



a This is incorrect, for the Raven chusetts and southward. W. B. 



