120 
FISH CROW. 
also inform me, tliat they have particularly 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 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 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 
extent; 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 
