CROW 



87 



torious to every one. In spring, when he makes his appearance 

 among the groves and low thickets, the whole feathered songsters 

 are instantly alarmed, well knowing the depredations and murders 

 he commits on their nests, eggs and young. Few of them, how- 

 ever, have the courage to attack him, except the King-bird, who 

 on these occasions teases and pursues him from place to place, 

 diving on his back while high in air, and harassing him for a great 

 distance. A single pair of these noble spirited birds, whose nest 

 was built near, have been known to protect a whole field of corn 

 from the depredations of the Crows, not permitting one to ap- 

 proach it. 



The Crow is eighteen inches and a half long, and three feet 

 two inches in extent; the general color is a shining glossy blue 

 black, with purplish reflexions ; the throat and lower parts are less 

 glossy; the bill and legs a shining black, the former two inches 

 and a quarter long, very strong, and covered at the base with thick 

 tufts of recumbent feathers ; the wings, when shut, reach within an 

 inch and a quarter of the tip of the tail, which is rounded; fourth 

 primary the longest; secondaries scoUopped at the ends, and mi- 

 nutely pointed, by the prolongation of the shaft ; iris dark hazel. 



The above description agrees so nearly with the European 

 species as to satisfy me that they are the same; tho the voice of 

 ours is said to be less harsh, not unlike the barking of a small spa- 

 niel ; the pointedness of the ends of the tail feathers, mentioned by 

 European naturalists, and occasioned by the extension of the shafts, 

 is rarely observed in the present species ; tho always very observ- 

 able in the secondaries. 



The female differs from the male in being more dull colored, 

 and rather deficient in the glossy and purplish tints and reflexions. 

 The difference however is not great. 



Besides grain, insects and carrion, they feed on frogs, tadpoles, 

 small fish, lizards and shell fish; with the latter they frequently 

 mount to a great height, dropping them on the rocks below, and 



