52 
QUISCALUS MAJOR. 
on the ground, or perched on the branches of tre e * 
They seek no concealment, and never enter the woo®' 
though they are very careful to construct their ne* 9 
in a safe situation. The troopials eat no fruits, y 
derive their subsistence from insects, n orms, gr8w 
and small seeds. They leave the temperate climates ? 
the approach of winter, and are amongst the first bi r " 
of passage that return with the spring. 
GENUS V. — QUISCALUS MAJOR, Vieillot. 
9. QUISCALUS MAJOR, V1EILLOT. 
GREAT CROW BLACKBIRD, BONAPARTE. 
BONAPARTE, PLATE IV. PIG. I. MALE ; FIG. II. FEMALE. 
EDINBURGH COLLEGE MUSEUM. 
No part of natural history has been more confaj, 
than that relating to North and South American bj** 
of black plumage ; which is by no means surprisi* 
when we recollect that they are chiefly destitute ' 
coloured markings, and that the greater number 
admitted species, are founded on the short and ineSf 
descriptions of travellers, who have neglected to obsfif, 
their forms, habits, and characters. But little aid “ 
been derived from the wretched plates hitherto giw 
for they seem better suited to increase the confusj 
than to exemplify the descriptions to which they * 
annexed, and every succeeding compiler has aggravJ 1 1 
rather than diminished this complication of error, 
is, therefore, solely by a studious attention to uat*J 
that we can extricate these species from the uncertain 
involving them, and place them in a distinct and w 
liizable situation. 
Wilson having mentioned this species in his cafah’r 
of land birds, evidently intended to describe and 6‘r j 
it ; but this he deferred, probably, in expectath'jh 
obtaining better opportunities of examination, i'l'' 
are not so readily presented, as the bird does not in' 19 
this section of the United States. 
It would be difficult to ascertain whether of \ 
Linne and Latham have mentioned this bird it* 9 
