198 FEMALE COMMON CROW BLACKBIRD. 
being now rendered inadmissible by the generic change, we 
have thought proper to adopt a local appellation. 
The female common crow blackbird is eleven inches in 
length, and sixteen and a half in extent. The bill is nearly 
an inch and a half long, and, as well as the feet, black ; the 
irides are yellowish white ; the whole head, neck, and upper 
part of the breast, are blackish, with steel-blue, green, and 
violet reflections, which are not so vivid as in the male. The 
general colour of the body, wings, and tail is deep sooty 
brown; the feathers of the back are margined with coppery 
and purplish ; the rump, tail-coverts, and wing-coverts are 
glossed with purplish; the lower part of the breast and flanks 
have a coppery reflection ; the inferior tail-coverts are obscurely 
glossed with violet. The tail is cuneiform, but slightly con- 
cave in flight, and is five inches long, extending two and a 
half inches beyond the tip of the wings; the feathers are 
elossed with very obscure greenish. In the male, the tail is 
also cuneiform, and greatly concave, exhibiting a singular 
boat-shaped appearance, as in the preceding species, and even 
more remarkably so, according to Mr Ord, which induced him 
to change the name. 
We shall not attempt to make any additions to the almost 
complete and very excellent history of this species given by 
Wilson ; but as the four species of Quescalus are liable to be 
confounded, we shall proceed to give a few comparative obser- 
vations, that the student may be enabled to distinguish them 
from each other. 
Amongst other remarkable traits, the Quiscalus ferrugineus 
is at once known in all its various states by its even tail and 
comparatively smaller bill, which somewhat resembles that 
of a thrush. In addition to the characters drawn from its 
dimensions, the Quiscalus versicolor can always be distin- 
cuished from its congeners by the slight difference in size and 
colour between the sexes; while, in the other species, the 
males and females are remarkably dissimilar: the mouth of 
this species is, moreover, armed with a prominent osseous 
