323 . INSESSORES. 



both when fresh and when putrid, they can, by turns, devour 

 with avidity. 



"THE CROW, (Corvus,) "as Swainson strikingly remarks, "is 

 the type of types, or the preeminent type of all birds, uniting a 

 greater number of properties than are to be found in any other 

 genus of birds. Like the Hawk, it soars in the air, and seizes 

 living birds; like the Vulture, it devours putrid substances, and 

 picks out the eyes of young animals; like the Climbers, it dis- 

 covers its food when hidden from the eye, by pecking ; like the 

 Parrot -family, it has a taste for vegetable food; has great cun- 

 ning, sagacity, and powers of imitation, even to counterfeiting 

 the human voice; like the Waders, it walks with facility, and 

 has great powers of flight; like the Aquatic birds, it can both 

 catch and feed upon fish. Thus it unites some of the properties 

 of all other birds, and stands the preeminent type ofthe Perchers." 



The largest and most powerful species of the genus Corvus, is 

 the well known Raven, C. corax, (Lat. a raven,) the CORBIE, 

 of Scotland^ celebrated even from the time of the universal 

 deluge, and ever looked upon as a bird of dark omen. It is 

 twenty-five inches in length, and fifty inches in the spread of the 

 wings, ranging from the Arctic seas to the Cape of Good Hope, 

 in the Eastern Continent, and from the same seas to Mexico, on 

 the Western; unchanged in character, amidst all the variations 

 and extremes of heat and cold ; traveling in pairs, and flying so 

 high that it would escape notice but for its frequent cry ing j in 

 all times and places, showing itself possessed of acute and 

 powerful sight and smell ; and at perpetual variance with all 

 other feathered tribes. 



THE COMMON 'CROW, C. Americanus, is seventeen inches in 

 length, being somewhat smaller than the Common Carrion Crow 

 of Europe, from which it differs in its voice, its gregarious habits, 

 and the shape of its tongue. Both are regarded and treated as 

 nuisances. Tens of thousands of them are shot every season. 

 They may be of some use to farmers in ploughing time, by 

 picking up worms and the larvae of insects; but of other good 

 deeds of the Crow, we are ignorant. No sooner are the seeds 

 in the ground, than he begins to search after and devour them ; 

 for Indian Corn and eggs he seems to have a wonderful inclina- 

 tion; and even relishes young chickens, turkeys and goslings; 

 at the same time, he is very cunning in avoiding the sn ires 

 which are devised to entrap and destroy him. The FISH CROW, 

 C. ossifragus, (bone-breaker,) found on the sea-coast as far 

 North as New York, like the Raven and Common Crow, robs 

 other birds of their eggs and their young; but, being regarded 



