SPECIES 2. CORPUS CORONE.* 



CROW. 

 [Plate XXXV. Fig. 3.] 



PEALE'S Museum, No. 1246. 



THIS is perhaps the most generally known, and least beloved, 

 of all our land birds; having neither melody of song, nor beau- 

 ty of plumage, nor excellence of flesh, nor civility of manners, 

 to recommend him; on the contrary, he is branded as a thief 

 and a plunderer; a kind of black-coated vagabond, who hovers 

 over the fields of the industrious, fattening on their labours; and 

 by his voracity often blasting their expectations. Hated as he 

 is by the farmer, watched and persecuted by almost every bear- 

 er of a gun, who all triumph in his destruction, had not heaven 

 bestowed on him intelligence and sagacity far beyond common, 

 there is reason to believe that the whole tribe (in these parts at 

 least) would long ago have ceased to exist. 



The Crow is a constant attendant on agriculture, and a gene- 

 ral inhabitant of the cultivated parts of North America. In the 

 interior of the forest he is more rare, unless during the season 

 of breeding. He is particularly attached to low flat corn coun- 

 tries, lying in the neighbourhood of the sea or of large rivers; 

 and more numerous in the northern than southern states, where 

 Vultures abound, and with whom the Crows are unable to con- 

 tend. A strong antipathy, it is also said, prevails between the 

 Crow and the Raven, insomuch that, where the latter are nu- 

 merous, the former rarely resides. Many of the first settlers of 

 the Gennesee country informed me, that, for a long time, Ra- 

 vens were numerous with them, but no Crows; and even now 



* We give the following synonymes: Corvus cor one, LINN. Syst. ed. 10, i, p. 

 105. GMEL. Syst. 1, p. 365. LATH. Ind. Orn. p. 151 TEMM. Man. d'Orn. 

 i, p. 108. 





