FISH CROW. I2 I 



cularly remarked this crow by his croaking voice, and his 

 fondness for fish ; almost always hovering about their fishing 

 places to glean up the refuse. Of their manner of breeding 

 I can only say, that they separate into pairs, and build in 

 tall trees near the sea or river shore ; one of their nests 

 having been built this season in a piece of tall woods near 

 Mr Beasley's at Great Egg Harbour. The male of this nest 

 furnished me with the figure in the plate, which was drawn 

 of full size, and afterwards reduced to one-third the size of life, 

 to correspond with the rest of the figures on the same plate. 

 From the circumstance of six or seven being usually seen 

 here together in the month of Juty, it is probable that they 

 have at least four or five young at a time. 



I can find no description of this species by any former 

 writer. Mr Bartram mentions a bird of this tribe which he 

 calls the great sea-side crow ; but the present species is con- 

 siderably inferior in size to the common crow, and having 

 myself seen and examined it in so many and remotely 

 situated parts of the country, and found it in all these places 

 alike, I have no hesitation in pronouncing it to be a new and 

 hitherto undescribed species. 



The fish crow is sixteen inches long, and thirty-three in ex- 

 tent ; black all over, with reflections of steel-blue and purple ; 

 the chin is bare of feathers around the base of the lower 

 mandible ; upper mandible notched near the tip, the edges of 

 both turned inwards about the middle ; eye, very small, 

 placed near the corner of the mouth, and of a dark hazel 

 colour ; recumbent hairs or bristles, large and long ; ear- 

 feathers, prominent ; first primary, little more than half the 

 length, fourth the longest ; wings, when shut, reach within 

 two inches of the tip of the tail ; tail, rounded, and seven 

 inches long from its insertion ; thighs, very long ; legs, stout ; 

 claws, sharp, long and hooked, hind one the largest, all jet 

 black. Male and female much alike. 



I would beg leave to recommend to the watchful farmers 

 of the United States, that, in their honest indignation against 



