CORVID^, CROWS AND JAYS. GEN. 94. 



161 



but ill the adults always intense, inclining to bronz}^ purplish or violet rather 

 than the uniform green of the last species ; 9 blackish-browu, sometimes 

 quite lustrous. Eastern United States, abundant 

 and generally distributed, migratory, gregarious. 

 WiLS., iii, 44, pi. 21, f. 4; Ndtt., i, 194; Aud., iv. 

 58, pi. 221 ; Bd., 555 puepureus. 



\^'X''^ '" Var. AGL.E0S. (Plate v, figs. 2, 6, 2a, 6rt.) Similar; 

 averaging smaller, but dimensions inosculating with those 

 of the last ; bill relativelj^ larger, or at least longer, with 

 more attenuated and decurved tip. Florida. Q. baritus 

 Bd., 556 ; Q. aglmus Bd., Am. .Jour. Sc. 1866, 84 ; Cass., 

 Proc. Pliila. Acad., 1866, 404 ; Ridgwat, ibid., 1869, 1.35. 

 Obs. The Quiscalus ceneus, lately described as a new 

 species hy Mr. Ridgwaj^ (L c. 134), appears to be based 

 upon a special plumage of Q. purjnireics ; and since it does 

 not prove to be confined, as its describer believed, to any 

 particular region, I should judge it not entitled to rank 

 as a geographical variety. The brilliant coloration is that represented in Audu- 

 bon's plate, above cited. 



BiUrt of Qntscali. 



Family CORVIDiE. Crows, Jays, etc. 



A rather large and important family, comprising such familiar birds as ravens, 

 crows, rooks, magpies, jays, with their allies, and a few diverging forms not so well 

 known ; nearly related to the famous birds of paradise. There are 10 primaries, of 

 which the 1st is short, generally about half as long as the 2d, and several outer 

 ones are more or less sinuate-attenuate on the inner web toward the end. The 

 tail has 12 rectrices, as usual among higher birds ; it varies much in shape, but is 

 generally rounded — sometimes extremely graduated, as in the magpie, and is not 

 forked in any of our forms. The tarsus has scutella in front, separated on one or 

 both sides from the rest of the tarsal envelope by a groove, sometimes naked, 

 sometimes filled in by small scales. The bill is stout, about as long as the head or 

 shorter, tapering, rather acute, generally notched, with convex culmen ; it lacks the 

 commissural angulation of the Fringillidr.e and Icteridce, the deep cleavage of the • 

 Hirundinidw, the slenderness of the CertJiiidce, Sittidce, and most small insectiv- 

 orous birds. The rictus usually has a few stifBsh bristles, and there are others 

 about the base of the bill. An essential character is seen in the dense covering of 

 the nostrils with large long tufts of close-pressed antrorse bristly feathers (excepting, 

 among our forms, in gen. 97, 98). These last features distinguish the Corvid(B 

 from all our other birds excepting Pa/ridce; the mutual resemblance is here so close, 

 that I cannot point out any obvious technical character of external form to distin- 

 guish, for example, Cyanurus from Lojjhojihanes, or Perisoreus from Parus. But as 

 already remarked (p. 79), stse is here perfectly distinctive, all the Corvidce being 

 much larger birds than the Paridce. 



Owing to the uniformity of color in the leading groups of the family, and an 

 apparent plasticity of organization in many forms, the number of species is diffi- 

 cult to determine, and is very variously estimated by different writers. Mr. G. R. 

 Gray admits upwards of two hundred species, which he distributes in fifty genera 

 and subgenera ; but these figures are certainly excessive, probablj' requiring reduc- 



KBY TO N. A. BIKDS. 21 



