GREAT CROW-BLACKBIRD. 
193 
The note of this species is louder than that of the com- 
mon kind, and some of its jarring tones are said to bear 
a resemblance to the noise of a watchman’s rattle. They 
are only heard to sing in the spring, and their concert, 
though inclining to melancholy, is not altogether disa- 
greeable. Their nests are built in company, on reeds 
and bushes, in the neighbourhood of marshes and ponds ; 
they lay about 5 eggs which are whitish, blotched and 
lined nearly all over with dusky olive. 
The general appearance of the male is black, but the head and 
neck] have bluish-purple reflections; the rest presents shades of steel* 
blue, excepting the back, rump, and middling wing-coverts which 
are glossed with copper green ; the vent, inferior tail coverts, and 
thighs are plain black. The tail, wedge-shaped, is nearly 8 inches in 
length, and like that of the common species, is capable of assuming 
a boat-shaped appearance. Iris pale yellow. The bill and feet black. 
The female is of alight dusky brown, with some feeble greenish 
reflections, and beneath of a dull brownish white. The young , at 
first, resemble the female, but have the irids brown, and gradually 
acquire their appropriate plumage. 
