184 FISH-CROW. 



correspond with the rest of the figures in the same plate. From 

 the circumstance of six or seven being usually seen here together, 

 in the month of July, it is probable that they have at least four 

 or five young at a time. 



I can find no description of this species by any former writer. 

 Mr. Bartram mentions a bird of this tribe, which he calls the 

 Great Sea-side Crow; but the present species is considerably 

 inferior in size to the common Crow; and having myself seen 

 and examined it in so many, and remotely situated, parts of the 

 country, and found it in all these places alike, I have no hesita- 

 tion in pronouncing it to be a new and hitherto undescribed spe- 

 cies. 



The Fish-Crow is sixteen inches long, and thirty-three in 

 extent; black all over, with reflections of steel-blue and purple; 

 the chin is bare of feathers around the base of the lower mandi- 

 ble;* upper mandible notched near the tip, the edges of both 

 turned inwards about the middle; eye very small, placed near 

 the corner of the mouth, and of a dark hazel colour; recumbent 

 hairs or bristles large and long; ear feathers prominent; first 

 primary little more than half the length of the second, fourth 

 the longest; wings, when shut, reach within two inches of the 

 tip of the tail; tail rounded, and seven inches long from its in- 

 sertion ; thighs very long; legs stout; claws sharp, long and hook- 

 ed, hind one the largest, all jet black. Male and female much 

 alike. 



I would beg leave to recommend to the watchful farmers of 

 the United States, that in their honest indignation against the 

 common Crow, they would spare the present species, and not 

 shower destruction, indiscriminately, on their black friends and 

 enemies; at least on those who sometimes plunder them, and 

 those who never molest or injure their property. 



* This must have been an accidental circumstance, as I have seen speci- 

 mens, the chin of which was entirely covered. In the month of April, I shot a 

 fine male, on the Delaware, seventeen inches long, thirty-three broad. The chin 

 covered. This species is greatly infested with lice, insomuch that when one 

 handles them, one gets covered with these disagreeable vermin. G. Ore/. 



