CROW. 



Crow This familiar American character has 



become a standard by which we calculate 



L. 19. 25 inches man y conditions, such as "as black as a 

 All the year crow," " as the crow flies," "as sharp as 

 a crow," etc. No description of the bird's appearance 

 is really necessary, but it may as well be said at 

 once, that in the fullest sense of the word lie is not 

 black ! The entire plumage is characterized by an 

 iridescent steel-blue or violet. This is particularly no- 

 ticeable on the neck, shoulders, wings, and tail. The 

 feathers of the under parts are less metallic and lustrous 

 than those of the upper parts. The nest is a clumsy 

 affair, built of twigs, sticks, bark, grass, etc. ; it is gen- 

 erally in the crotch of a bough fully thirty feet above 

 ground. Egg a beautiful dull green-blue thickly speckled 

 with brown; sometimes it is blue- white, or pale blue 

 with sparse markings. The bird is distributed from the 

 northern United States south to Florida, where it is rep- 

 resented by the Florida Crow. 



There is no music in the Crow's caw nor any in the 

 rest of his various calls, but he is a bird with a distinct 

 language, which one may study with profitable results. 

 His harsh mutterings are just desultory talk, his 

 er-r-r-r-r-uek bespeaks contentment, his sharp and in- 

 cisive caw, caw, caw, means "attention!" 



Caw! caw! caw! 



and his three fortissimo tones, embracing a distinct majoi 

 third, mean, I do not know what, but I sometimes think 

 "Come this way quick!" 





Ca - c&k Cd caw! 

 47 



