184 
FISH-CROW. 
correspond with the rest of the figures in the same plate. From 
the circumstance of six or seven being usually seen here together, 
in the month of July, 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 Seaside Crow; but the present species is considerably 
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 hesita- 
tion in pronouncing it to be a new and hitherto undescribed spe- 
cies. 
The Fish-Crow is sixteen inches long, and thirty-three in 
extent; black all over, with reflections of steel-blue and purple; 
the chin is bare of feathers around the base of the lower mandi- 
ble;* 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 of the second, fourth 
the longest; wings, when shut, reach within two inches of the 
tip of the tail; tail rounded, and seven inches long from its in- 
sertion ; thighs very long; legs stout; claws sharp, long and hook- 
ed, hind one the largest, all jet black. Male and female much 
alike. 
1 would beg leave to recommend to the watchful farmers of 
the United States, that in their honest indignation against the 
common Crow, they would spare the present species, and not 
shower destruction, indiscriminately, on their black friends and 
enemies; at least on those who sometimes plunder them, and 
those who never molest or injure their property. 
* Tills must have been an accidental circumstance, as I have seen speci- 
mens, the chin of which wras entirely covered. In die month of April, I shot a 
fine male, on the Delaware, seventeen inches long, thirty-three broad. The cliin 
covered. This species is gi-eatly infested wdth lice, insomuch that when one 
handles them, one gets covered with these disagreeable vennin. — G. Ord. 
