FISH CROW. , 343 
‘She L ings us fish — she brings us spring 
Good times, fair weather, warmth, and plenty ; 
Fine store of shad, trout, herring, ling, 
Sheepshead and drum, and old-wives dainty. 
Yo, ho, my hearts ! let ’s seek the deep, 
Ply every oar, and cheerly wish her, 
’ Still as the bending net we sweep. 
“ God bless the Fish Hawk and the fisher ! ” 
She rears her young on yonder tree ; 
She leaves her faithful mate to mind ’em ; 
Like us, for fish, she sails to sea, , 
And, plunging, shows us where to find ’em. 
‘Yo, ho, my hearts! let ’s seek the deep, 
Ply every oar, and cheerly wish her, 
While the slow-bending net we sweep, 
“God bless the Fish Hawk and the fisher ! ”” 
i 
FISH CROW.— CORVUS OSSIFRAGUS. — Fie. 159. 
Peule’s Museum, No. 1369. 
CORVUS OSSIFRAGUS. — Wirson.* 
Corvus ossifragus, Bonap. Synop. p. 57. 
Tars is another roving inhabitant of our sea-coasts, ponds, and 
river-shores, though a much less distinguished one than the preceding ; 
this being the first time, as far as I can learn, that he has ever been 
introdyced to, the notice of the world. 
I first met with this species on the sea-coast of Georgia, and 
observed that they regularly retired to the interior as evening ap- 
proached, and came down to the shores of the River Savannah by the 
first appearance of day. Their voice first attracted my notice, being 
very different from that of the Common Crow, more hoarse and guttu- 
ral, uttered as if something stuck in their throat, and varied into sev- 
éral modulations as they flew‘along. Their manner of flying was also 
unlike the others, as they frequently sailed about, without flapping the 
wings, something in the manner of the Raven; and I soon perceived 
that their food, and their mode of procuring it, were also both “differ- 
* This is a very curious bird, first named and described by our author. It is 
one of the predacious species, with the nostrils clothed with feathers, and seems to 
feed nearly alone on fish or reptiles, doing almost no harm to the husbandman. ln 
the latter circumstance, it resembles also our Carrion Crow, whieh often kills the 
common frog ; and, last summer, I observed one flying with an adder in his bill, 
He had caught it on a detached piece of muir, and, on my approach, rose, taking 
the prey along with. him, most probably before it was sufficiently despatched, as 
the writhings of the reptile caused him to alight ‘several times, at short distances, 
before being perfectly at case. Being on horseback, I could not follow to sce ‘the 
end of the engagement. ‘The species scems peculiar to the coast of North Amer- 
iea, and does not extend very far northward, — Fp. 
