THE ORCHARD ORIOLE, OR HANG-NEST. 51 



attains a height of sixty or eighty feet, and a diameter of three or four. The 

 bark is detached in large plates, and the trunk is marked with several broad 

 furrows. The flowers, which are small and of a greenish colour, are suc- 

 ceeded by long, flat, pendent, generally tortuous pods, of a brown colour. 

 The wood is very hard, but porous and brittle. This species is distinguished 

 by its numerous, generally tripartite spines, its linear-oblong leaflets, and its 

 many-seeded, compressed legumes. 



Genus V.— QUISCALUS, Vieill. CROW-BLACKBIRD. 



Bill as long as the head, or somewhat longer, nearly straight, strong, 

 tapering, compressed from the base; upper mandible with its outline slightly 

 declinate, a little convex, the ridge narrow at the base and encroaching a 

 little on the forehead, afterwards broad, rounded, and indistinct, the sides 

 convex, the edges sharp and direct, or slightly inflected, with a faint festoon 

 anterior to the nostrils, the tip deflected, acute; lower mandible with the 

 angle short and rounded, the dorsal line straight, slightly deflected at the 

 end, the ridge convex, the sides rounded, the edges inflected, the tip very 

 acute. Nostrils basal, oval, half-closed by a membrane. Head of moderate 

 size, ovate, flattened above; neck of moderate length; body rather slender. 

 Feet of moderate length; tarsus as long as the middle toe and claw, com- 

 pressed, with eight anterior scutella; toes rather long, with large scutella, 

 the hind toe stronger, the lateral toes nearly equal, the middle toe much 

 longer. Claws rather long, slightly arched, compressed, not laterally 

 grooved, acute. Plumage blended, highly glossed. Wings of moderate 

 length, the second and third quills longest, the first and fourth little shorter. 

 Tail long, graduated or rounded, the feathers flat or slightly concave, slightly 

 emarginate, with the inner webs longer than the outer. Roof of the upper 

 mandible concave, with three longitudinal ridges, of which the middle is 

 enlarged at the base and prominent; tongue slender, sagittate, concave above, 

 tapering to a thin lacerated point; oesophagus rather wide, considerably 

 dilated about the middle; stomach of moderate size, elliptical or roundish, 

 moderately muscular, the lateral muscles distinct, the epithelium dense, 

 horny, slightly rugous, with two roundish grinding surfaces; intestine of 

 moderate length, rather wide; coeca very small; cloaca oblong. 



