58 
QUISCALUS VERSICOLOR. 
name employed by Wilson being 1 now rendered inad- 
missible by the generic change, we have thought proper 
to adopt a local appellation. 
The female common crow blackbird is eleven inches 
in length, and sixteen and a half in extent. The bill is 
nearly an inch and a half long, and, as well as the feet, 
black ; the irides are yellowish white ; the whole head, 
neck, and upper part of the breast, are blackish, with 
steel blue, green and violet reflections, which are not 
so vivid as in the male. The general colour of the body, 
wings, and tail, is deep sooty brown ; the feathers of 
the back are margined with coppery and purplish ; 
the rump, tail-coverts, and wing-coverts are glossed 
with purplish ; the lower part of the breast and flanks 
have a coppery reflection ; the inferior tail-coverts are 
obscurely glossed with violet. The tail is cuneiform, 
but slightly concave in flight, and is five inches long, 
extending two and a half inches beyond the tip of the 
wings ; the feathers are glossed with very obscure 
greenish. In the male, the tail is also cuneiform, and 
greatly concave, exhibiting a singular boat-shaped 
appearance, as in the preceding species, and even more 
remarkably so, according to Mr Ord, which induced 
him to change the name. 
We shall not attempt to make any additions to the 
almost complete, and very excellent history of this 
species, given by Wilson : but as the four species of 
quiscalus are liable to be confounded, we shall proceed 
to give a few comparative observations, that the student 
may be enabled to distinguish them from each other. 
Amongst other remarkable traits, the Quiscalus fer - 
rugineus is at once known in all its various states, by 
its even tail, and comparatively smaller bill, which 
somewhat resembles that of a thrush. In addition to 
the characters drawn from its dimensions, the Quiscalus 
versicolor can always be distinguished from its congeners, 
by the slight difference in size and colour between the 
sexes ; while, in the other species, the males and females 
are remarkably dissimilar : the mouth of this species is, 
moreover, armed with a prominent osseous carina, a 
