416 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — PA SSEBES — OSCINES. 



338. C. co'rax. (Gr. Kopa^, korax, Lat. corax, a croaker — the raven. Fig. 268.) Amekican 

 Raven. Feathers of throat somewhat stiffened, lengthened, pointed, lying loose from one 

 another ; those of neck with gray downy bases, as elsewhere on the body. Color entirely lus- 

 trous black, with chiefly purplish and violet burnishing. Length about 3 feet — at least over 

 20 inches ; expanse of wings 4 or 4^ feet — much over a yard. Wing about 1-J- feet — at least 

 over 15 inches. Tail about 10 inches ; its feathers graduated 1.50-2.50 inches. Bill along chord 

 of culmen, and tarsus, about 3.50. Varies much in size. Greenland and Labrador specimens 

 are of great size, with immense biU touching 3.00. The biU. is usually longer and relatively less 

 deep in the American than in the European raven ; whole bird more sturdy and robust. The 

 usual wing-formula is : primary 4>3 = 5>2>6>1 = 8; but these quUls grow and moult 

 so gradually the proportionate lengths differ much in specimens examined. The 9 is undistin- 

 guishable from the ^, though averaging smaller. N. Amer. ; but now rare iu the U. S. east 

 of the Mississippi, and altogether wanting in most of the States ; Labrador, ran'ging southward, 



339. 



FiQ. 268. —Head of a very large American Baven, nat. size. (Ad nat. del. E.G.) 



rarely, along the coast to the Middle districts ; very abundant in the West, where the sable 

 plume and the bleaching skeleton, the ominous croak and the Indian war-whoop, are not yet 

 things of the past. Wherever in the West the raven abounds, the crow seems to be sup- 

 planted. Nests high in trees and on cliffs, selecting the most inaccessible places. Eggs 4-8, 

 oftener 4-5, about 2.00 X 1.30, greenish, dotted, blotched and clouded with neutral tints, pur- 

 plish- and blackish-browns. 



O. cryptoleu'cns. (Gr. Kpimros, hrwptos, crypted or hidden ; Xcvkos, Imhos, white.) White- 

 necked Raven. Throat-feathers as in C. corax; but bases of the feathers of neck snowy- 

 white. Smaller than the raven ; about as large as a good-sized crow, and generally taken for 

 one in those regions where it occurs with the raven, the difference between them being obvious 

 in life ; the accounts of " crows " in some regions where C. americcmus does not occur being 

 based upon the presence of C. cryptoleueus. Southwestern U. S., Llano Estacado and higher 

 Rio Grande of Texas, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and portions of California. 



