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NEW YORK, THURSDAY, DEC. 18, 1873. 



j Volume 1, Number 19. 

 103 Fulton Street. 



THE CROW'S CHILDREN. 

 ♦ 



A HUNTSMAN, bearing his gun afield, 

 Went whistling merrily; 

 When he heard the blackest of black crows 

 Call out from a withered tree: 



"You are going to kill the thievish birds 



And I would, if I were you; 

 But yon mustn't touch my family, 



Whatever else you do!" 



"I'm only going to kill the birds 



That are eating up my crop; 

 And if your young ones do such things, 



Be sure they'll have to stop." 



"Oh," said the crow, "my children 



Are the best ones ever born ; 

 There isn't one among them all 



Would steal a grain of corn." 



"But how shall I know which ones they are? 



Do they resemble you?" 

 "Oh, no," said the crow, "they're the prettient bird» 



And the whitest that ever flew.*' 



So off went the sportsman whistling, 



And off, too, went his gun; 

 And its startling echoes never ceased 



Again till the day was done. 



And the old crow sat untroubled, 



Cawing away in her nook; 

 For she said: "He'll never kill my bird* 



Since I told him how they look." 



"Now there's the hawk, my neighbor, 



She'll see what she will see, soon; 

 And that saucy, whistling blackbird 



May have to change his tune!" 



When lo! she saw the hunter 



Taking his homeward track, 

 With a string of crows as long an hia gun 



Hanging down his back. 



"Alas, alack," said the mother, 



"What in the world have you done? 

 You promised to spare my pretty birds. 



And you've killed them every one." 



"Your birds," said the puzzled hunter, 



"Why, I found them in my corn; 

 And besides, they are black and ugly 



As any that ever were born." 



"Get out of my Bight, you stupid!" 



Said the angriest of crows ; 

 "How good and fair her children are 



There's none but a parent knows." 



"Ah! I see, I see," said the hunter, 



"But not as you do, quite; 

 It takes a mother to be so blind 



She can't tell black from white." 



PHceaa Cart. 



ks 



he CSrom* nnA ^ttnih off <^arth 



Imtnca. 



DISCUSSED IN RELATION TO THEIR VARIATION WITH HABITAT. 



Smithsonian Institution, December 4, 1873. 

 The laws of climatic variation in the color and propor- 

 tion of birds, as applied to the species of our country, were 

 first made known by Prof. Baird. in his celebrated work 

 on ' 'The Distribution and Migration of North American 

 Birds," (American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. XLI,) 

 published in 1856 ; and Prof. Baird's outlines and principles 

 of laws have been the germ of more detailed discussions by 

 Mr. J. A. Allen, (see Bulletin of the Museum of Comp. 

 Zo51., Cambridge, II, 1871, pt. iii; pp. 186-250;) Dr. Elliott 

 Cones, (see Proc. Phila. Acad., and American Naturalist, 

 vol. VII, July, 1873,) and the author of the present article, 

 (see Am. Jour, of Science and Arts, Dec, 1872, and Jan., 

 1873, and Am. Nat., vol. VII, Sept. 1873.) These laws of 

 variation with climate, so far as they bear upon the North 

 American Grouse and Partridges, I shall repeat in sub- 

 stance here; premising that they all originated with Prof. 

 Baird. 1. Birds from the middle, open regions of the Uni- 

 ted BtaUe, as the arid plains and the great Basin, have 



lighter, grayer colors than those of the States from the fer- 

 tile prairies of the Mississippi valley to the Atlantic coast; 

 if the plumage has dark bars , or streaks, these are nar- 

 rower, and dilute in tint; brown tints become more gray- 

 ish, rufous tints more buff, and the latter color white; at 

 the same time the bird becomes slenderer, and the feet 

 weaker; while these differences are often accompanied by 

 a proportionate increase in the length of the tail. 



2. In the moist, densely wooded regions of the Pacific 

 coast, from the red-wood forests of the coast of California, 

 northward, the colors are darker and the pattern of the 

 markings less distinct than in the birds of the same species 

 in the Atlantic States; the contrast with those o I the cen- 

 tral regions being still greater. Rufous tints become cas- 

 toneous, the latter becomes sooty; ash becomes overspread 

 with a smoky brown coat, or deepens into sooty plumbeous. 

 In proportion as the dark markings intensify in color they 

 also increase in extent, to the contraction of the lighter 

 ones. An enlargement of the bill, particularly a tendency 

 to be longer, also usually accompanies this darkening of 

 the colors. 



3. Birds bred in the high north are larger, in direct pro- 

 portion to the latitude, than those bred at a far southern 

 point. 



4: Birds bred in South Florida have absolutely larger 

 bills than the otherwise larger individuals of the same 

 species born in the north. 



The preceding laws cover the chief regional variations in 

 our grouse and partridges; and in order to show the rela- 

 tion which they bear to the races named elsewhere, I shall 

 describe the latter more in detail. First, as to the "quails," 

 {Ortyx virginianus.') Taking for convenience the quails of 

 the New England States as the normal standard, we can 

 trace them from this point, their northeastern limit of dis- 

 tribution, towards the regions of extreme climatic differ- 

 entation, only in two directions, viz. : southward to Cuba, 

 through the Atlantic States, and south-westward to Texas, 

 through Kansas. Proceeding in either direction, we note 

 that as we go Southward the birds gradually get smaller ; 

 and that this change takes place in faster ratio and more 

 abruptly in the Mississippi Valley than along the Atlantic 

 States, for in Southern Illinois the quails much more nearly 

 approach, both in size, relative proportion of different 

 parts, and in colors, those of Florida, than do those from a 

 corresponding locality on the Atlantic coast, as for instance, 

 Washington city or Norfolk. This is probably the result 

 of greater humidity, greater luxuriance of vegetation, and. 

 greater warmth of climate. On the Alleghany ranges in 

 the same latitude, the quails are like those of the lowlands 

 in New England. In Cuba the smallest quails are found, 

 and with this extreme diminution of size is an increased 

 intensity and extent of the black markings of the plumage, 

 n accordance with a law pointed out by Mr. Allen, to the 

 effect that colors intensify and dark markings increase in 

 extent to the southward. Owing to it* extreme differenta- 

 tion, the Cuban quail was named Ortyx Gubanensis by Mr. 

 Gould, but from the fact that the quails from South Flori- 

 da are just intermediate between those from Cuba and 

 those from Middle States, leads us to call it 0. Virginianus 

 var. Gubanensis. The Floridian bird has been named var. 

 Floridanus by Dr. Coues, (see Key to North American 

 Birds,) but it is a question whether a name founded upon 

 one extreme differentation can be allowed to stand. 



From the Easter \ States westward to the limit of the 

 wooded region, the colors of the quails do not show any 

 appreciable difference, until the extreme southern portion 

 of Illinois is reached; there the colors as well as the size 

 show a marked approach to the Florida style. On the 

 prairies, however, the quails are appreciably grayer, with 

 less rufous and black than those of the heavily wooded 

 sections of the same region ; "and as we go westward we 

 find this grayness gradually increasing until in Middle 

 Kansas the difference from those of the prairies of Illinois 

 is very strongly marked; and if we still trace the species 

 southward, we find that the maximum grayness, and mini- 

 mum amount of rufous tints, is reached in Texas. The 

 Texan quail was described in 1858, by Mr. Lawrence, as 



Ortyx texanw, the connecting links not then being known. 

 But now, since we have become aware of the gradual pro- 

 gression between the two extremes as noted above, we call 

 the light gray ish colored quails of the Southwestern plains 

 0. Virginianus var. texanus. 



The American grouse likewise vary in colors and size, 

 with habitat, but they being of more northern distribution, 

 other laws are the agencies in working their modifications. 

 Taking first the ruffed or drumming grouse, (Bonasa umbel- 

 lus,) we observe that every individual killed in the south of 

 Maryland on the Atlantic coast and anywhere in the Mis- 

 sissippi Valley, has the tail of an ochraceous rufous color, 

 in bars of several shades ; the prevailing tints on the body 

 are also rufous. As soon as we go into the Alleghany 

 mountains we begin to find a few with tails gray or inclin- 

 ing to be gray, and in proportion as we go northward the 

 number of individuals having gray tails increases, and the 

 grayness becomes at the same time more decided. *In the 

 New England States apparently every individual of the 

 species has a gray tail. But all the birds of the eastern 

 United States have rufous the predominant color of the 

 body. Canadian specimens are like New England ones, 

 but those from the interior of British America, and thence 

 to the Yukon river in Alaska, are entirely gray, with little, 

 if any, tinge of rufous anywhere on the plumage. Speci- 

 mens from the Rocky Mountains as far southwest as the 

 species extends, are like these northern examples, for the 

 high altitude of their habitat is equivalent to the high lati- 

 tude of that of the others. This gray form is the Tetrao 

 umbelloides of Douglass, or the B. umbellus var. umbelloides of 

 Baird. In the densely wooded region of the Pacific coast, 

 in Oregon, Washington Territory, and British Columbia, 

 the ruffed grouse are much more like those of the South- 

 ern States and Mississippi Valley than any other region, 

 having like them rufous tails; but the colors are much 

 darker and deeper, a rich shade of f errugineous, mixed with 

 chestnut, prevailing. Going from the coast back into the 

 mountains, this form, (the Tetrao sabinei, Douglass, B. um- 

 bellus var. sabiuei, Baird.) grades directly *with var. umbelloi- 

 des, first acquiring a dark gray tail and gradually becoming 

 lighter and more ashey toward the interior range. 



In the Rocky Mountains of British America, the Ganace 

 canadensis has also a representative race, the var. franklini 

 in which the tail is entirely black instead of tipped with 

 rufous; and in the same localities the G. Obscura has a race 

 (var. richardsoni) differing in exactly the same particulars 

 from the var. obscura. It is not known with certainty that 

 the G. canadensis extends to the Pacific coast; but the C. 

 obscura does, and the race found in company with Bonam 

 umbellus var. sabinei differs from the var. obscura of the 

 ranges inhabited by the B. umbellus var. umbellioides in dark- 

 er, more sooty colors, and reddish wash over the back. The 

 latter constitutes the geographical race var. fuligniosa. The 

 Orcortyx pictus is represented on the Sierra Nevada or the 

 interior range of California, by the var. plumifera, in which 

 the gray tints are lighter, clearer, and more bluish than in 

 the race of the coast range, (var ptetus,) in which the ashey 

 tints are much obscured by a smoky olive wash. The pin- 

 nated grouse, or prairie hen, of the Texan plains, (cupidonia 

 cupido var. pallidicinctus Ridgeway,) differs from that of the 

 Illinois and Louisiana prairies, in being lighter colored and 

 more slender, jnst as do the quails. Of the remaining 

 species of grouse there are left only the sage cock, or cock 

 of the plains, {centrocercus urophasinaus) the sharp-tailed 

 grouse, (pediocaetes phasianellus,) and the ptarmigans, lagopu 

 albus, L. mutus var. rupestris, and Z, leucurus. The sage 

 cock and the gptarmigas being limited each to one geo- 

 graphical province, no climatic races occur; but the sharp- 

 tailed grouse, which has a very extended distribution, pre- 

 sents two well-marked forms. The var. phasianellus ex- 

 tends over the entire western and middle portions of British 

 America, south to the northern shore of Lake Superior on 

 the east, and British Columbia on the west; northward it 

 extends to the shores of the Arctic Ocean. In this form the 

 colors are simply white and blackish brown, the latter pre- 

 vailing; while the toes are almost concealed by the long 

 hair-like feathers. The var. columHanus extends south- 



