56 crow. 



white ; over the eye a spot of the same ; neck behind, back, wings, 

 and tail blue ; all the feathers of the last, except the two middle ones, 

 tipped with white, and nearly as long as the rest of the bird; both 

 wing and tail feathers elegantly barred with black ; greater wing 

 coverts and second quills tipped with white ; legs dusky brown. 



The female is less bright, and the white at the end of the tail 

 smaller in extent. 



Inhabits America, common at New York and New England in 

 April and May ; feeding on hazel nuts, chestnuts, &c. breaking the 

 shells with its bill; not seen farther north than Albany; fond of 

 maize, and often seen in flocks of forty or fifty, which alighting on a 

 field of ten or twelve acres, soon lay waste the whole ; sometimes 

 eats snails and other vermin ; continues in Georgia the whole year, 

 but rarely uniting into flocks, as in the more northern States ; hence, 

 although they will attack the tender ears of Indian corn, are much 

 less destructive thereto than the Red-Headed Woodpecker, for they 

 will frequently be satisfied with acorns and berries ; the nest is built 

 in the forks of oaks and pines, lined with fibrous roots, thirty feet 

 from the ground or more, but concealed with so much art as to make 

 it difficult to find ; the eggs are white.* This bird has a variety of 

 notes, and some musical ; will learn to talk; extends to Paraguay; 

 observed to inhabit an extent of country more than seventy degrees 

 from east to west, and more than thirty from north to south. 



58— STELLERS CROW. 



Corvus Stelleri, Ind. Orn.i. 158. Gm. Lin. i. 370. Daud. ii. 248. Shaw's Zool. vii.365. 



Pica glandaria ccerulea non cristata, Bartr. Trav. 170 ? 



Steller's Crow, Gen. Syn. i. 387. Id. Sup. ii. 111. Arct. Zool. ii. No. 139. 



LENGTH fifteen inches. Bill black, at the gape five or six 

 bristles ; head crested, the crest composed of narrow, brown feathers; 



* Mr. Abbot. — In the Amer. Ornith. they are said to be dull olive spotted with brown. 



