GREAT CROW-BLACKBIRD. 
by worms and insects, that the inhabitants were obliged to spare 
the birds, in order to avert a scourge which had been previously 
unknown. As population increases, and a greater quantity of 
giain is cultivated, the ravages of these birds become less percep¬ 
tible, and the injury they cause comparatively trifling. 
The Great Crow-Blackbird is more than sixteen inches lonar, 
and twenty-two in extent. The bill, from the angle of the mouth, 
is one inch and three quarters, and its colour, like that of the feet, 
is black; the roof of the mouth is furnished with a slight osseous 
carina; the irides are pale yellow. The general appearance of 
the bird is black; the whole head and neck having bluish-purple 
reflections; the interscapular region, breast, belly, sides, and smaller 
wing coverts, are glossy steel-blue; the back, rump, and middling 
wing coverts, are glossed with copper-green; the vent, inferior tail 
coverts, and thighs, are plain black. The undescribed parts of the 
wings are deep black, slightly glossed with green, as well as the 
tail, which is cuneiform, capable of assuming a boat-shaped appear¬ 
ance, and measures nearly eight inches in length from its insertion, 
surpassing the tip of the wings by five inches. 
The female is considerably shorter, measuring only twelve and 
a half inches in length, and seventeen inches and a half in extent. 
The bill, from the angle of the mouth, is one inch and a half lono*, 
and, with the feet, is black; the irides are of a still paler yellow 
than those of the male. The head and neck above are light brown, 
giadually passing into dusky towards the back, which, with the 
scapulars and lesser wing coverts, has slight greenish reflections; 
a whitish line passes from the nostrils over the eye, to the origin 
of the neck. The chin, throat, and breast, are dull whitish; the 
anterior part of the breast is slightly tinged with brownish; the 
flanks are brownish; the belly brownish-white; and the vent and 
inferior tail coverts are blackish-brown, each feather being mar¬ 
gined with pale, rhe remaining parts are of a dull brownish- 
black, slightly glossed with greenish; the secondaries, tail coverts, 
