CROW. 
79 
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 plumage. 
CROW. — CORVUS CORONE.*— Plate XXXV. Fig. 8. 
Peale's Museum , No. 1246. 
CORVUS CORONE? — Linn;eus. 
This is perhaps the most generally known, and least beloved, 
of all our land birds ; having neither melody of song, nor 
beauty of plumage, nor excellence of flesh, nor civility of 
* “ 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 comparison 
with European specimens, and it may seem presumption to differ from the 
above authorities, without ever having seen the bird in question. I cannot, 
nevertheless, reconcile Wilson’s account of the difference of habits and 
cry to those of Britain and Europe. It seems a species more intermediate 
between the common Rook, C. frugilegus, and the C. corone ; their gregarious 
habits, and feeding so much on grain, are quite at variance with the Carrion 
Crow ; Wilson’s account of the Crow roost on the Delaware is so different, 
fchat, as far as habit is concerned, it is impossible to refer them to one ; and 
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