80 CROW. 



kicking, picked many places quite raw ; the difficulty of pro- 

 curing food rendering those birds so bold, as to alight on our 

 men's arms, and eat meat out of their hand." * 



The magpie is eighteen inches in length ; the head, neck, 

 upper part of the breast and back, are a deep velvety black ; 

 primaries, brownish black, streaked along their inner vanes 

 with white ; secondaries, rich purplish blue ; greater coverts, 

 green blue ; scapulars, lower part of the breast and belly, 

 white ; thighs and vent, black ; tail, long ; the two exterior 

 feathers scarcely half the length of the longest, the others 

 increasing to the two middle ones, which taper towards their 

 extremities. The colour of this part of the plumage is very 

 splendid, being glossy green, dashed with blue and bright 

 purple ; this last colour bounds the green ; nostrils, covered 

 with a thick tuft of recumbent hairs, as are also the sides of 

 the mouth ; bill, legs, and feet, glossy black. The female 

 differs only in the less brilliancy of her plumnge. 



CROW. (Corvus corone.^) 



PLATE XXXV. -Fig. 3. 



Peak's Museum, No. 1246. 

 CORVUS CORONE /— Lin.vecs. 



This is perhaps the most generally known, and least beloved, 

 of all our land birds; having neither melody of song, nor 



* Pike's Journal, p. 170. 



+ " The voice of this bird is so remarkably different from that of the 

 Corone of Europe, that I -was at first led to believe it a distinct species ; 

 but the most scrupulous examination and comparison of European and 

 American specimens proved them to be the same," are the words of 

 Bonaparte in his Nomenclature to Wilson ; and Corvus corone is quoted 

 as the name and synonym to this species in the " Northern Zoology," 

 from a male killed on the plains of the Saskatchewan. 



This is one of the birds I have yet been unable to obtain for compari- 

 son with European specimens, and it may seem presumption to differ 

 from the above authorities, without ever having seen the bird in question. 



