SONG-BIRDS. Fish Crow 



Eggs : 4-7, greenish ground, stained and spotted with brown ; vari- 

 able both in size and colour. 

 Range : North America, from the Fur Countries to Mexico. 



With none of the beauty and daring of the Blue Jay to 

 recommend him, the Crow, at least as a bird of the garden, 

 home fields and woodlands, has not a single good mark to 

 his name. A price has been set upon his head; he sees 

 a gun a mile away, while his only picturesque quality is a 

 negative one — when he completes the dreariness of a No- 

 vember landscape by flapping dolefully over the stacked 

 cornstalks in the brown fields. 



From the standpoint of the agricultural economist, how- 

 ever, the Crow seems to be pronounced not guilty, or at 

 least not wholly as black as he usually appears to the naked 

 eye of the casual observer. The white feathers claimed for 

 him are the May beetles, June bugs, grasshoppers, cut- 

 worms, caterpillars, mice, etc., that he consumes in off sea- 

 sons, when corn is too hard to suit him and nests are empty. 



Be this as it may, we must be allowed to regard birds 

 somewhat in an aesthetic light, we are not all interested in 

 cataloguing the contents of birds' stomachs, and no one' will 

 deny that the average Crow (of course there may be abnor- 

 mal and angelic exceptions) is a coward, with a hoarse voice 

 and disagreeable manners added to a most offensive, crouch- 

 ing personality hiding a world of cheap craft. In fact, a 

 sort of feathered Uriah Heap, whom we do not desire for 

 a near neighbour, though there may be people and communi- 

 ties where he is appreciated. 



Fish Crow: Corvus ossifragus. 



Length : 14-16 inches. 



Male and Female : Glossy, purplish black. 



Song : Resembling the last species, but with a different intonation. 



Season : Summer resident. 



Breeds : Through range. 



Nest and Eggs: Hardly to be distinguished from those of the last 



species. 

 Bange ; Atlantic coast, from Long Island to Florida. 



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