FEMALE COMMON CROW-BLACKBIRD. 43 
substituted the name given by Vieillot, which is admirably appro¬ 
priate. The English name employed by Wilson being now ren¬ 
dered inadmissible 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 com* 
plete, 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 ferr ugineus is 
at once known in all its various states, by its even tail, and com¬ 
paratively smaller bill, which somewhat resembles that of a Thrush. 
In addition to the characters drawn from its dimensions, the Quis¬ 
calus 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 dis- 
