SUBFAMILY QUISCALINÆ
[Line drawing: Scolecophagus ferrugineus. 16775]
CHAR. Bill rather attenuated, as long as or longer than the head. The culmen curved, the tip much bent down. The cutting edges inflected so as to impart a somewhat tubular appearance to each mandible. The commissure sinuated. Tail longer than the wings, usually much graduated. Legs longer than the head, fitted for walking. Color of males entirely black with lustrous reflections.
The bill of the Quiscalinæ is very different from that of the other Icteridæ, and is readily recognized by the tendency to a rounding inward along the cutting edges, rendering the width in a cross section of the bill considerably less along the commissure than above or below. The culmen is more curved than in the Agelainæ. All the North American species have the iris white.
The only genera in the United States are as follows:—
Scolecophagus. Tail shorter than the wings; nearly even. Bill shorter than the head.
Quiscalus. Tail longer than the wings; much graduated. Bill as long as or longer than the head.
GENUS SCOLECOPHAGUS, SWAINSON.
Scolecophagus, SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831. (Type, Oriolus ferrugineus, GMELIN.)
GEN. CHAR. Bill shorter than the head, rather slender, the edges inflexed as in Quiscalus, which it otherwise greatly resembles; the commissure sinuated. Culmen rounded, but not flattened. Tarsi longer than the middle toe. Tail even, or slightly rounded.
The above characteristics will readily distinguish the genus from its allies. The form is much like that of Agelaius. The bill, however, is more attenuated, the culmen curved and slightly sinuated. The bend at the base of the commissure is shorter. The culmen is angular at the base posterior to the nostrils, instead of being much flattened, and does not extend so far behind. The two North American species may be distinguished as follows:—
Synopsis of Species.
S. ferrugineus. Bill slender; height at base not .4 the total length. Color of male black, with faint purple reflection over whole body; wings, tail, and abdomen glossed slightly with green. Autumnal specimens with feathers broadly edged with castaneous rusty. Female brownish dusky slate, without gloss; no trace of light superciliary stripe.
S. cyanocephalus. Bill stout; height at base nearly .5 the total length. Color black, with green reflections over whole body. Head only glossed with purple. Autumnal specimens, feathers edged very indistinctly with umber-brown. Female dusky-brown, with a soft gloss; a decided light superciliary stripe.
Cuba possesses a species referred to this genus (S. atroviolaceus), though it is not strictly congeneric with the two North American ones. It differs in lacking any distinct membrane above the nostril, and in having the bill not compressed laterally, as well as in being much stouter. The plumage has a soft silky lustre; the general color black, with rich purple or violet lustre. The female similarly colored to the male.
Scolecophagus ferrugineus, SWAINSON.
RUSTY BLACKBIRD.
Oriolus ferrugineus, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 393, No. 43.—LATH. Ind. I, 1790, 176. Gracula ferruginea, WILSON, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 41, pl. xxi, f. 3. Quiscalus ferrugineus, BON. Obs. Wils. 1824, No. 46.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 199.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 315; V, 1839, 483, pl. cxlvii.—IB. Synopsis, 1839, 146.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 65, pl. ccxxii.—MAX. Caban. J. VI, 1858, 204. Scolecophagus ferrugineus, SWAINSON, F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 286.—BON. List, 1838.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 551.—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1861, 225.—CASS. P. A. N. S. 1866, 412.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 285 (Alaska). ? ? Oriolus niger, GMELIN, I, 1788, 393, Nos. 4, 5 (perhaps Quiscalus).—SAMUELS, 350.—ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 291. Scolecophagus niger, BONAP. Consp. 1850, 423.—CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 195. ? ? Oriolus fuscus, GMELIN, Syst. I, 1788, 393, No. 44 (perhaps Molothrus). Turdus hudsonius, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 818.—LATH. Ind. Turdus noveboracensis, GMELIN, I, 1788, 818. Turdus labradorius, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 832.—LATH. Ind. I, 1790, 342 (labradorus). “Pendulinus ater, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict.” _Chalcophanes virescens_, WAGLER, Syst. Av. (Appendix, Oriolus 9). _? Turdus_ No. 22 from Severn River, Forster, Phil. Trans. LXII, 1772, 400.
SP. CHAR. Bill slender; shorter than the head; about equal to the hind toe; its height not quite two fifths the total length. Wing nearly an inch longer than the tail; second quill longest; first a little shorter than the fourth. Tail slightly graduated; the lateral feathers about a quarter of an inch shortest. General color black, with purple reflections; the wings, under tail-coverts, and hinder part of the belly, glossed with green. In autumn the feathers largely edged with ferruginous or brownish, so as to change the appearance entirely. Spring female dull, opaque plumbeous or ashy-black; the wings and tail sometimes with a green lustre. Young like autumnal birds. Length of male, 9.50; wing, 4.75; tail, 4.00. Female smaller.
HAB. From Atlantic coast to the Missouri. North to Arctic regions. In Alaska on the Yukon, at Fort Kenai, and Nulato.
HABITS. The Rusty Blackbird is an eastern species, found from the Atlantic to the Missouri River, and from Louisiana and Florida to the Arctic regions. In a large portion of the United States it is only known as a migratory species, passing rapidly through in early spring, and hardly making a longer stay in the fall. Richardson states that the summer range of this bird extends to the 68th parallel, or as far as the woods extend. It arrives at the Saskatchewan in the end of April, and at Great Bear Lake, latitude 65°, by the 3d of May. They come in pairs, and for a time frequent the sandy beaches of secluded lakes, feeding on coleopterous insects. Later in the season they are said to make depredations upon the grain-fields.
They pass through Massachusetts from the 8th of March to the first of April, in irregular companies, none of which make any stay, but move hurriedly on. They begin to return early in October, and are found irregularly throughout that month. They are unsuspicious and easily approached, and frequent the streams and edges of ponds during their stay.
Mr. Boardman states that these birds are common near Calais, Me., arriving there in March, some remaining to breed. In Western Massachusetts, according to Mr. Allen, they are rather rare, being seen only occasionally in spring and fall as stragglers, or in small flocks. Mr. Allen gives as their arrival the last of September, and has seen them as late as November 24. They also were abundant in Nova Scotia. Dr. Coues states that in South Carolina they winter from November until March.
These birds are said to sing during pairing-time, and become nearly silent while rearing their young, but in the fall resume their song. Nuttall has heard them sing until the approach of winter. He thinks their notes are quite agreeable and musical, and much more melodious than those of the other species.
During their stay in the vicinity of Boston, they assemble in large numbers, to roost in the reed marshes on the edges of ponds, and especially in those of Fresh Pond, Cambridge. They feed during the day chiefly on grasshoppers and berries, and rarely molest the grain.
According to Wilson, they reach Pennsylvania early in October, and at this period make Indian corn their principal food. They leave about the middle of November. In South Carolina he found them numerous around the rice plantations, feeding about the hog-pens and wherever they could procure corn. They are easily domesticated, becoming very familiar in a few days, and readily reconciled to confinement.
In the District of Columbia, Dr. Coues found the Rusty Grakle an abundant and strictly gregarious winter resident, arriving there the third week in October and remaining until April, and found chiefly in swampy localities, but occasionally also in ploughed fields.
Mr. Audubon found these birds during the winter months, as far south as Florida and Lower Louisiana, arriving there in small flocks, coming in company with the Redwings and Cowbirds, and remaining associated with them until the spring. At this season they are also found in nearly all the Southern and Western States. They appear fond of the company of cattle, and are to be seen with them, both in the pasture and in the farm-yard. They seem less shy than the other species. They also frequent moist places, where they feed upon aquatic insects and small snails, for which they search among the reeds and sedges, climbing them with great agility.
In their habits they are said to resemble the Redwings, and, being equally fond of the vicinity of water, they construct their nests in low trees and bushes in moist places. Their nests are said to be similarly constructed, but smaller than those of the Redwings. In Labrador Mr. Audubon found them lined with mosses instead of grasses. In Maine they begin to lay about the first of June, and in Labrador about the 20th, and raise only one brood in a season.
The young, when first able to fly, are of a nearly uniform brown color. Their nests, according to Audubon, are also occasionally found in marshes of tall reeds of the Typha, to the stalks of which they are firmly attached by interweaving the leaves of the plant with grasses and fine strips of bark. A friend of the same writer, residing in New Orleans, found one of these birds, in full plumage and slightly wounded, near the city. He took it home, and put it in a cage with some Painted Buntings. It made no attempt to molest his companions, and they soon became good friends. It sang during its confinement, but the notes were less sonorous than when at liberty. It was fed entirely on rice.
The memoranda of Mr. MacFarlane show that these birds are by no means uncommon near Fort Anderson. A nest, found June 12, on the branch of a spruce, next to the trunk, was eight feet from the ground. Another nest, containing one egg and a young bird, was in the midst of a branch of a pine, five feet from the ground. The parents endeavored to draw him from their nest, and to turn his attention to themselves. A third, found June 22, contained four eggs, and was similarly situated. The eggs contained large embryos. Mr. MacFarlane states that whenever a nest of this species is approached, both parents evince great uneasiness, and do all in their power, by flying from tree to tree in its vicinity, to attract one from the spot. They are spoken of as moderately abundant at Fort Anderson, and as having been met with as far east as the Horton River. He was also informed by the Eskimos that they extend along the banks of the Lower Anderson to the very borders of the woods.
Mr. Dall states that these Blackbirds arrive at Nulato about May 20, where they are tolerably abundant and very tame. They breed later than some other birds, and had not begun to lay before he left, the last of May. Eggs were procured at Fort Yukon by Mr. Lockhart, and at Sitka by Mr. Bischoff.
Besides these localities, this bird was found breeding in the Barren Grounds of Anderson River in 69° north latitude, on the Arctic coast at Fort Kenai, by Mr. Bischoff, and at Fort Simpson, Fort Rae, and Peel River. It has been found breeding at Calais by Mr. Boardman, and at Halifax by Mr. W. G. Winton.
Eggs sent from Fort Yukon, near the mouth of the Porcupine River, by Mr. S. Jones, are of a rounded-oval shape, measuring 1.03 inches in length by .75 in breadth. In size, shape, ground-color, and color of their markings, they are hardly distinguishable from some eggs of Brewer’s Blackbird, though generally different. All I have seen from Fort Yukon have a ground-color of very light green, very thickly covered with blotches and finer dottings of a mixture of ferruginous and purplish-brown. In some the blotches are larger and fewer than in others, and in all these the purple shading predominates. One egg, more nearly spherical than the rest, measures .98 by .82. None have any waving lines, as in all other Blackbird’s eggs. Two from near Calais, Me., measure 1.02 by .75 of an inch, have a ground of light green, only sparingly blotched with shades of purplish-brown, varying from light to very dark hues, but with no traces of lines or marbling.
According to Mr. Boardman, these birds are found during the summer months about Calais, but they are not common. Only a few remain of those that come in large flocks in the early spring. They pass along about the last of April, the greater proportions only tarrying a short time; but in the fall they stay from five to eight weeks. They nest in the same places with the Redwing Blackbirds, and their nests are very much alike. In early summer they have a very pretty note, which is never heard in the fall.
Scolecophagus cyanocephalus, CAB.
BREWER’S BLACKBIRD.
Psarocolius cyanocephalus, WAGLER, Isis, 1829, 758. Scolecophagus cyanocephalus, CABANIS, Mus. Hein. 1851, 193.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 552.—CASS. P. A. N. S. 1866, 413.—HEERM. X, S, 53.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 209.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 278. Scolecophagus mexicanus, SWAINSON, Anim. in Men. 2¼ cent. 1838, 302.—BON. Conspectus, 1850, 423.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. and Or. Route; Rep. P. R. R. Surv. VI, IV, 1857, 86. Quiscalus breweri, AUD. Birds Am. VII, 1843, 345, pl. ccccxcii.
SP. CHAR. Bill stout, quiscaline, the commissure scarcely sinuated; shorter than the head and the hind toe; the height nearly half length of culmen. Wing nearly an inch longer than the tail; the second quill longest; the first about equal to the third. Tail rounded and moderately graduated; the lateral feathers about .35 of an inch shorter. General color of male black, with lustrous green reflections everywhere except on the head and neck, which are glossed with purplish-violet. Female much duller, of a light brownish anteriorly; a very faint superciliary stripe. Length about 10 inches; wing, 5.30; tail, 4.40.
HAB. High Central Plains to the Pacific; south to Mexico. Pembina, Minn.; S. Illinois (Wabash Co.; R. RIDGWAY); Matamoras and San Antonio, Texas (breeds; DRESSER, Ibis, 1869, 493); Plateau of Mexico (very abundant, and resident; SUMICHRAST, M. B. S. I, 553).
Autumnal specimens do not exhibit the broad rusty edges of feathers seen in S. ferrugineus.
The females and immature males differ from the adult males in much the same points as S. ferrugineus, except that the “rusty” markings are less prominent and more grayish. The differences generally between the two species are very appreciable. Thus, in S. cyanocephalus, the bill, though of the same length, is much higher and broader at the base, as well as much less linear in its upper outline; the point, too, is less decurved. The size is every way larger. The purplish gloss, which in ferrugineus is found on most of the body except the wings and tail, is here confined to the head and neck, the rest of the body being of a richly lustrous and strongly marked green, more distinct than that on the wings and tail of ferrugineus. In one specimen only, from Santa Rosalia, Mexico, is there a trace of purple on some of the wing and tail feathers.
HABITS. This species was first given as a bird of our fauna by Mr. Audubon, in the supplementary pages of the seventh volume of his Birds of America. He met with it on the prairies around Fort Union, at the junction of the Yellowstone and the Missouri Rivers, and in the extensive ravines in that neighborhood, in which were found a few dwarfish trees and tall rough weeds or grasses, along the margin of scanty rivulets. In these localities he met with small groups of seven or eight of these birds. They were in loose flocks, and moved in a silent manner, permitting an approach to within some fifteen or twenty paces, and uttering a call-note as his party stood watching their movements. Perceiving it to be a species new to him, he procured several specimens. He states that they did not evince the pertness so usual to birds of this family, but seemed rather as if dissatisfied with their abode. On the ground their gait was easy and brisk. He heard nothing from them of the nature of a song, only a single cluck, not unlike that of the Redwing, between which birds and the C. ferrugineus he was disposed to place this species.
Dr. Newberry found this Blackbird common both in California and in Oregon. He saw large flocks of them at Fort Vancouver, in the last of October. They were flying from field to field, and gathered into the large spruces about the fort, in the manner of other Blackbirds when on the point of migrating.
Mr. Allen found this Blackbird, though less an inhabitant of the marshes than the Yellow-headed, associating with them in destroying the farmers’ ripening corn, and only less destructive because less numerous. It appears to be an abundant species in all the settled portions of the western region, extending to the eastward as far as Wisconsin, and even to Southeastern Illinois, one specimen having been obtained in Wisconsin by Mr. Kumlien, and others in Wabash Co., Ill., by Mr. Ridgway.
In the summer, according to Mr. Ridgway, it retires to the cedar and piñon mountains to breed, at that time seldom visiting the river valley. In the winter it resorts in large flocks to the vicinity of corrals and barn-yards, where it becomes very tame and familiar. On the 3d of June he met with the breeding-ground of a colony of these birds, in a grove of cedars on the side of a cañon, in the mountains, near Pyramid Lake. Nearly every tree contained a nest, and several had two or three. Each nest was saddled on a horizontal branch, generally in a thick tuft of foliage, and well concealed. The majority of these nests contained young, and when these were disturbed the parents flew about the heads of the intruders, uttering a soft chuck. The maximum number of eggs or young was six, the usual number four or five. In notes and manners it seemed to be an exact counterpart of the C. ferrugineus.
Dr. Suckley found these birds quite abundant at Fort Dalles, but west of the Cascade Mountains they were quite rare. At Fort Dalles it is a winter resident, where, in the cold weather, it may frequently be found in flocks in the vicinity of barn-yards and stables. Dr. Cooper also obtained specimens of this Grakle at Vancouver, and regards it as a constant resident on the Columbia River. He saw none at Puget Sound. In their notes and habits he was not able to trace any difference from the Rusty Blackbird of the Atlantic States. In winter they kept about the stables in flocks of fifties or more, and on warm days flew about among the tree-tops, in company with the Redwings, singing a harsh but pleasant chorus for hours.
Dr. Cooper states it to be an abundant species everywhere throughout California, except in the dense forests, and resident throughout the year. They frequent pastures and follow cattle in the manner of the Molothrus. They associate with the other Blackbirds, and are fond of feeding and bathing along the edges of streams. They have not much song, but the noise made by a large flock, as they sit sunning themselves in early spring, is said to be quite pleasing. In this chorus the Redwings frequently assist. At Santa Cruz he found them more familiar than elsewhere. They frequented the yards about houses and stables, building in the trees of the gardens, and collecting daily, after their hunger was satisfied, on the roofs or on neighboring trees, to sing, for an hour or two, their songs of thanks. He has seen a pair of these birds pursue and drive away a large hawk threatening some tame pigeons.
This species has an extended distribution, having been met with by Mr. Kennicott as far north as Pembina, and being also abundant as far south as Northern Mexico. In the Boundary Survey specimens were procured at Eagle Pass and at Santa Rosalia, where Lieutenant Couch found them living about the ranches and the cattle-yards.
Mr. Dresser, on his arrival at Matamoras, in July, noticed these birds in the streets of that town, in company with the Long-tailed Grakles Q. macrurus and Molothrus pecoris. He was told by the Mexicans that they breed there, but it was too late to procure their eggs. In the winter vast flocks frequented the roads near by, as well as the streets of San Antonio and Eagle Pass. They were as tame as European Sparrows. Their note, when on the wing, was a low whistle. When congregated in trees, they kept up an incessant chattering.
Dr. Coues found them permanent residents of Arizona, and exceedingly abundant. It was the typical Blackbird of Fort Whipple, though few probably breed in the immediate vicinity. Towards the end of September they become very numerous, and remain so until May, after which few are observed till the fall. They congregate in immense flocks about the corrals, and are tame and familiar. Their note, he says, is a harsh, rasping squeak, varied by a melodious, ringing whistle. I am indebted to this observing ornithologist for the following sketch of their peculiar characteristics:—
“Brewer’s Blackbird is resident in Arizona, the most abundant bird of its family, and one of the most characteristic species of the Territory. It appears about Fort Whipple in flocks in September; the numbers are augmented during the following month, and there is little or no diminution until May, when the flocks disperse to breed.
“The nest is placed in the fork of a large bush or tree, sometimes at the height of twenty or thirty feet, and is a bulky structure, not distantly resembling a miniature Crow’s nest, but it is comparatively deeper and more compactly built. A great quantity of short, crooked twigs are brought together and interlaced to form the basement and outer wall, and with these is matted a variety of softer material, as weed-stalks, fibrous roots, and dried grasses. A little mud may be found mixed with the other material, but it is not plastered on in any quantity, and often seems to be merely what adhered to the roots or plant-stems that were used. The nest is finished inside with a quantity of hair. The eggs are altogether different from those of the Quiscali and Agelæi, and resemble those of the Yellow-headed and Rusty Grakles. They vary in number from four to six, and measure barely an inch in length by about three fourths as much in breadth. The ground-color is dull olivaceous-gray, sometimes a paler, clearer bluish or greenish gray, thickly spattered all over with small spots of brown, from very dark blackish-brown or chocolate to light umber. These markings, none of great size, are very irregular in outline, though probably never becoming line-tracery; and they vary indefinitely in number, being sometimes so crowded that the egg appears of an almost uniform brownish color.
“In this region the Blackbirds play the same part in nature’s economy that the Yellow-headed Troupial does in some other parts of the West, and the Cowbird and Purple Grakle in the East. Like others of their tribe they are very abundant where found at all, and eminently gregarious, except whilst breeding. Yet I never saw such innumerable multitudes together as the Redwinged Blackbird, or even its Californian congener, A. tricolor, shows in the fall, flocks of fifty or a hundred being oftenest seen. Unlike the Agelæi, they show no partiality for swampy places, being lovers of the woods and fields, and appearing perfectly at home in the clearings about man’s abode, where their sources of supply are made sure through his bounty or wastefulness. They are well adapted for terrestrial life by the size and strength of their feet, and spend much of their time on the ground, betaking themselves to the trees on alarm. On the ground they habitually run with nimble steps, when seeking food, only occasionally hopping leisurely, like a Sparrow, upon both feet at once. Their movements are generally quick, and their attitudes varied. They run with the head lowered and tail somewhat elevated and partly spread for a balance, but in walking slowly the head is held high, and oscillates with every step. The customary attitude when perching is with the body nearly erect, the tail hanging loosely down, and the bill pointing upward; but should their attention be attracted, this negligent posture is changed, the birds sit low and firmly, with elevated and wide-spread tail rapidly flirted, whilst the bright eye peers down through the foliage. When a flock comes down to the ground to search for food, they generally huddle closely together and pass pretty quickly along, each one striving to be first, and in their eagerness they continually fly up and re-alight a few paces ahead, so that the flock seems, as it were, to be rolling over and over. When disturbed at such times, they fly in a dense body to a neighboring tree, but then almost invariably scatter as they settle among the boughs. The alarm over, one, more adventurous, flies down again, two or three follow in his wake, and the rest come trooping after. In their behavior towards man, they exhibited a curious mixture of heedlessness and timidity; they would ramble about almost at our feet sometimes, yet the least unusual sound or movement sent them scurrying into the trees. They became tamest about the stables, where they would walk almost under the horses’ feet, like Cowbirds in a farm-yard.
“Their hunger satisfied, the Blackbirds would fly into the pine-trees and remain a long time motionless, though not at all quiet. They were at singing-school,’ we used to say, and certainly there was room for improvement in their chorus; but if their notes were not particularly harmonious, they were sprightly, varied, and on the whole rather agreeable, suggesting the joviality that Blackbirds always show when their stomachs are full, and the prospect of further supply is good. Their notes are rapid and emphatic, and, like the barking of coyotes, give an impression of many more performers than are really engaged. They have a smart chirp, like the clashing of pebbles, frequently repeated at intervals, varied with a long-drawn mellow whistle. Their ordinary note, continually uttered when they are searching for food, is intermediate between the guttural chuck of the Redwing and the metallic chink of the Reedbird.
“In the fall, when food is most abundant, they generally grow fat, and furnish excellent eating. They are tender, like other small birds, and do not have the rather unpleasant flavor that the Redwing gains by feeding too long upon the Zizania.
“These are sociable as well as gregarious birds, and allied species are seen associating with them. At Wilmington, Southern California, where I found them extremely abundant in November, they were flocking indiscriminately with the equally plentiful Agelaius tricolor.”
Dr. Heermann found this Blackbird very common in New Mexico and Texas, though he was probably in error in supposing that all leave there before the period of incubation. During the fall they frequent the cattle-yards, where they obtain abundance of food. They were very familiar, alighting on the house-tops, and apparently having no cause for fear of man. Unlike all other writers, he speaks of its song as a soft, clear whistle. When congregated in spring on the trees, they keep up a continual chattering for hours, as though revelling in an exuberance of spirits.
Under the common Spanish name of Pajaro prieto, Dr. Berlandier refers in MSS. to this species. It is said to inhabit the greater part of Mexico, and especially the Eastern States. It moves in flocks in company with the other Blackbirds. It is said to construct a well-made nest about the end of April, of blades of grass, lining it with horse-hair. The eggs, three or four in number, are much smaller than those of Quiscalus macrurus, obtuse at one end, and slightly pointed at the other. The ground-color is a pale gray, with a bluish tint, and although less streaked, bears a great resemblance to those of the larger Blackbird.
Dr. Cooper states that these birds nest in low trees, often several in one tree. He describes the nest as large, constructed externally of a rough frame of twigs, with a thick layer of mud, lined with fine rootlets and grasses. The eggs are laid from April 10 to May 20, are four or five in number, have a dull greenish-white ground, with numerous streaks and small blotches of dark brown. He gives their measurement at one inch by .72. They raise two and probably three broods in a season.
Four eggs of this species, from Monterey, collected by Dr. Canfield, have an average measurement of 1.02 inches by .74. Their ground-color is a pale white with a greenish tinge. They are marked with great irregularity, with blotches of a light brown, with fewer blotches of a much darker shade, and a few dots of the same. In one egg the spots are altogether of the lighter shade, and are so numerous and confluent as to conceal the ground-color. In the other they are more scattered, but the lines and marbling of irregularly shaped and narrow zigzag marking are absent in nearly all the eggs.
Mr. Lord found this species a rare bird in British Columbia. He saw a few on Vancouver Island in the yards where cattle were fed, and a small number frequented the mule-camp on the Sumas prairie. East of the Cascades he met none except at Colville, where a small flock had wintered in a settler’s cow-yard. They appeared to have a great liking for the presence of those animals, arising from their finding more food and insects there than elsewhere, walking between their legs, and even perching upon their backs.
Captain Blakiston found this species breeding on the forks of the Saskatchewan, June 3, 1858, where he obtained its eggs.
GENUS QUISCALUS, VIEILLOT.
Quiscalus, VIEILLOT, Analyse, 1816 (GRAY). (Type, Gracula quiscala, L.)
[Line drawing: Quiscalus purpureus. 2104]
SP. CHAR. Bill as long as the head, the culmen slightly curved, the gonys almost straight; the edges of the bill inflected and rounded; the commissure quite strongly sinuated. Outlines of tarsal scutellæ well defined on the sides; tail long, boat-shaped, or capable of folding so that the two sides can almost be brought together upward, the feathers conspicuously and decidedly graduated, their inner webs longer than the outer. Color black.
The excessive graduation of the long tail, with the perfectly black color, at once distinguishes this genus from any other in the United States. Two types may be distinguished: one Quiscalus, in which the females are much like the males, although a little smaller and perhaps with rather less lustre; the other, Megaquiscalus, much larger, with the tail more graduated, the females considerably smaller, and of a brown or rusty color. The Quiscali are all from North America or the West Indies (including Trinidad); none having been positively determined as South American. The Megaquiscali are Mexican and Gulf species entirely, while a third group, the Holoquiscali, is West Indian.
Synopsis of Species and Varieties.
A. QUISCALUS. Sexes nearly similar in plumage. Color black; each species glossed with different shades of bronze, purple, violet, green, etc. Lateral tail-feathers about .75 the length of central. Hab. Eastern United States. Proportion of wing to tail variable.
Q. purpureus. a. Body uniform brassy-olive without varying tints. Head and neck steel-blue, more violaceous anteriorly.
1. Length, 13.50; wing, 5.50 to 5.65; tail, 5.70 to 5.80, its graduation, 1.50; culmen, 1.35 to 1.40. Vivid blue of the neck all round abruptly defined against the brassy-olive of the body. Female. Wing, 5.20; tail, 4.85 to 5.10. Hab. Interior portions of North America, from Texas and Louisiana to Saskatchewan and Hudson’s Bay Territory; New England States; Fort Bridger, Wyoming Territory var. æneus.
b. Body variegated with purple, green, and blue tints. Head and neck violaceous-purple, more blue anteriorly.
2. Length, 12.50; wing, 5.60; tail, 5.30, its graduation, 1.20; culmen, 1.32. Dark purple of neck all round passing over the breast, and appearing in patches on the lower parts. Wing and tail purplish; tail-coverts reddish-purple. Female. Wing, 5.10; tail, 4.50. Hab. Atlantic coast of United States var. purpureus.
3. Length, 11.75; wing, 4.85 to 5.60; tail, 4.60 to 5.50, its graduation, .90; culmen, 1.38 to 1.66. Dark purple of neck sharply defined against the dull blackish olive-green of the body. Wings and tail greenish-blue; tail-coverts violet-blue. Female. Wing, 4.65 to 4.90; tail, 3.80 to 4.60. Hab. South Florida; resident var. agelaius.
B. HOLOQUISCALUS. (CASSIN.) Tail shorter than wings; sexes similar. Color glossy black, but without varying shades of gloss; nearly uniform in each species. Tail moderately graduated. Hab. West India Islands, almost exclusively; Mexico and South America.
Q. baritus. Black, with a soft bluish-violet gloss, changing on wings and tail into bluish-green.
Culmen decidedly curved; base of mandibles on sides, smooth.
1. Bill robust, commissure sinuated; depth of bill, at base, .54; culmen, 1.33; wing, 6.15; tail, 5.50, its graduation, 1.30. Female. Wing, 5.20; tail, 4.70; other measurements in proportion. Hab. Jamaica var. baritus.[43]
2. Bill slender, commissure scarcely sinuated; depth of bill, .43; culmen, 1.35; wing, 5.40; tail, 5.10, its graduation, 1.20. Female. Wing, 4.60; tail, 4.20. Hab. Porto Rico var. brachypterus.[44]
Culmen almost straight; base of mandibles on sides corrugated.
3. Depth of bill, .51; culmen, 1.44; wing, 6.00; tail, 5.50, its graduation, 1.50. Female. Wing, 5.15; tail, 4.80. Hab. Cuba var. gundlachi.[45]
4. Depth of bill, .40; culmen, 1.35; wing, 5.00; tail, 4.50, its graduation, .85. Hab. Hayti var. niger.[46]
C. MEGAQUISCALUS. (CASSIN.) Tail longer than wings. Sexes very unlike. Female much smaller, and very different in color, being olivaceous-brown, lightest beneath. Male without varying shades of color; lateral tail-feather about .60 the middle, or less.
Q. major. Culmen strongly decurved terminally; bill robust. Female with back, nape, and crown like the wings; abdomen much darker than throat.
Lustre of the plumage green, passing into violet anteriorly on head and neck.
1. Length, 15.00; wing, 7.50; tail, 7.70, its graduation, 2.50; culmen, 1.60. Female. Wing, 5.10. Hab. South Atlantic and Gulf coast of United States var. major.
Lustre, violet passing into green posteriorly.
2. Length, 14.00; wing, 6.75; tail, 7.20, its graduation, 2.40; culmen, 1.57. Female. Wing, 5.30; tail, 5.00. Hab. Western Mexico. (Mazatlan, Colima, etc.) var. palustris.[47]
3. Length, 18.00; wing, 7.70; tail, 9.20, its graduation, 3.50; culmen, 1.76. Female. Wing, 5.80; tail, 6.30. Hab. From Rio Grande of Texas, south through Eastern Mexico; Mazatlan (accidental?) var. macrurus.
Q. tenuirostris.[48] Culmen scarcely decurved terminally; bill slender. Female with back, nape, and crown very different in color from the wings; abdomen as light as throat.
1. Male. Lustre purplish-violet, inclining to steel-blue on wing and upper tail-coverts. Length, 15.00; wing, 7.00; tail, 8.00, its graduation, 3.00. Female. Crown, nape, and back castaneous-brown; rest of upper parts brownish-black. A distinct superciliary stripe, with the whole lower parts as far as flanks and crissum, deep fulvous-ochraceous, lightest, and inclining to ochraceous-white, on throat and lower part of abdomen; flanks and crissum blackish-brown. Wing, 5.10; tail, 5.35, its graduation, 1.80; culmen, 1.33; greatest depth of bill, .36. HAB. Mexico (central?).
[43] Quiscalus baritus (LINN.), CASS. Proc. Ac. Nat. Sc. Phila., 1866, p. 405. (Gracula barita, LINN. S. N. I, 165, 1766). Q. crassirostris, SWAINSON.
[44] Quiscalus brachypterus, CASS. Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 406.
[45] Quiscalus gundlachi, CASS. Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 406.
[46] Quiscalus niger (BODDAERT), CASS. Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 407. (Oriolus niger, BODD. Tab. Pl. Enl. p. 31, 1783.)
None of the continental forms are in the collection, and therefore their relationship to each other and to the West Indian species cannot be here given. They are: (1) Q. lugubris, SWAINS. (Cabinet Cyclopædia, p. 299, 1838.—CASS. Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 408). Hab. S. Am., Trinidad. (2) Q. mexicanus, CASS. (Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 408). Hab. Mexico. Besides these are the two following, whose habitats are unknown: Q. inflexirostris, SWAINS. (Cab. Cyc. p. 300, 1838), and Q. rectirostris, CASS. (Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 409).
[47] Quiscalus palustris (SWAINS.), CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S., Phila., 1866, p. 411. (Scaphidurus pal., SWAINS. Phil. Mag. 1827, 437).
[48] Quiscalus tenuirostris, SWAINS. Cabinet Cyclopædia, 1838, p. 299.—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 411. The Q. assimilis, SCL. Cat. Am. B. 1862, 141, from Bogota, and Q. peruvianus, SWAINS. Cab. Cyc. 1838, 354, of Peru, are not in the collection; they are probably referrible to the major type.
Quiscalus purpureus, BARTR.
THE CROW BLACKBIRD.
SP. CHAR. Bill above, about as long as the head, more than twice as high; the commissure moderately sinuated and considerably decurved at tip. Tail a little shorter than the wing, much graduated, the lateral feathers .90 to 1.50 inches shorter. Third quill longest; first between fourth and fifth. Color black, variously glossed with metallic reflections of bronze, purple, violet, blue, and green. Female similar, but smaller and duller, with perhaps more green on the head. Length, 13.00; wing, 6.00; bill above, 1.25.
Hab. From Atlantic to the high Central Plains.
Of the Crow Blackbird of the United States, three well-marked races are now distinguished in the species: one, the common form of the Atlantic States; another occurring in the Mississippi Valley, the British Possessions, and the New England States, and a third on the Peninsula of Florida. The comparative diagnoses of the three will be found on page 809.
Var. purpureus, BARTRAM.
PURPLE GRAKLE.
Gracula quiscala, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, (ed. 10,) 1758, 109 (Monedula purpurea, Cal.); I, (ed. 12,) 1766, 165.—GMELIN, I, 1788, 397.—LATHAM, Ind. I, 1790, 191.—WILSON, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 44, pl. xxi, f. 4. Chalcophanes quiscalus, WAGLER, Syst. Av. 1827 (Gracula).—CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851, 196. _? ? Oriolus ludovicianus_, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 387; albino var. ? ? Oriolus niger, GMELIN, Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 393. ? Gracula purpurea, BARTRAM, Travels, 1791, 290. Quiscalus versicolor, VIEILLOT, Analyse? 1816.—IB. Nouv. Dict. XXVIII, 1819, 488.—IB. Gal. Ois. I, 171, pl. cviii.—BON. Obs. Wils. 1824, No. 45.—IB. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 45, pl. v.—IB. List, 1838.—IB. Conspectus, 1840, 424.—SW. F. Bor.-Am. II, 1831, 485.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 194.—AUD. Orn. Biog. I, 1831, 35; V, 1838, 481 (not the pl. vii.).—IB. Syn. 1839, 146.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 58 (not the pl. ccxxi.).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 575. Gracula barita, ORD., J. A. N. Sc. I, 1818, 253. “Quiscalus purpureus, LICHT.”—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. Sc., 1866, 403.—RIDGWAY, Pr. A. N. S. 1869, 133.—ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 291 (in part). Quiscalus nitens, LICHT. Verz. 1823, No. 164. Quiscalus purpuratus, SWAINSON, Anim. in Menag. 1838, No. 55. Purple Grakle, PENNANT, Arctic Zoöl. II.
SP. CHAR. Length about 12.50; wing, 5.50; tail, 4.92; culmen, 1.24; tarsus, 1.28. Second quill longest, hardly perceptibly (only .07 of an inch) longer than the first and third, which are equal; projection of primaries beyond secondaries, 1.56; graduation of tail, .92. General appearance glossy black; whole plumage, however, brightly glossed with reddish-violet, bronzed purple, steel-blue, and green; the head and neck with purple prevailing, this being in some individuals more bluish, in others more reddish; where most blue this is purest anteriorly, becoming more violet on the neck. On other portions of the body the blue and violet forming an iridescent zone on each feather, the blue first, the violet terminal; sometimes the head is similarly marked. On the abdomen the blue generally predominates, on the rump the violet; wings and tail black, with violet reflection, more bluish on the latter; the wing-coverts frequently tipped with steel-blue or violet. Bill, tarsi, and toes pure black; iris sulphur-yellow.
HAB. Atlantic States, north to Nova Scotia, west to the Alleghanies.
This form is more liable to variation than any other, the arrangement of the metallic tints varying with the individual; there is never, however, an approach to the sharp definition and symmetrical pattern of coloration characteristic of the western race.
The female is a little less brilliant than the male, and slightly smaller. The young is entirely uniform slaty-brown, without gloss.
An extreme example of this race (22,526, Washington, D. C.?) is almost wholly of a continuous rich purple, interrupted only on the interscapulars, where, anteriorly, the purple is overlaid by bright green, the feathers with terminal transverse bars of bluish. On the lower parts are scattered areas of a more bluish tint. The purple is richest and of a reddish cast on the neck, passing gradually into a bluish tint toward the bill; on the rump and breast the purple has a somewhat bronzy appearance.
HABITS. The common Crow Blackbird of the eastern United States exhibits three well-marked and permanently varying forms, which we present as races. Yet these variations are so well marked and so constant that they almost claim the right to be treated as specifically distinct. We shall consider them by themselves. They are the Purple Grakle, or common Crow Blackbird, Quiscalus purpureus; the Bronzed Grakle, Q. æneus; and the Florida Grakle, Q. aglæus.
The first of these, the well-known Crow Blackbird of the Atlantic States, so far as we are now informed, has an area extending from Northern Florida on the south to Maine, and from the Atlantic to the Alleghanies. Mr. Allen states that the second form is the typical form of New England, but my observations do not confirm his statement. Both the eastern and the western forms occur in Massachusetts, but the purpureus alone seems to be a summer resident, the æneus occurring only in transitu, and, so far as I am now aware, chiefly in the fall.
The Crow Blackbirds visit Massachusetts early in March and remain until the latter part of September, those that are summer residents generally departing before October. They are not abundant in the eastern part of the State, and breed in small communities or by solitary pairs.
In the Central States, especially in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, they are much more abundant, and render themselves conspicuous and dreaded by the farmers through the extent of their depredations on the crops. The evil deeds of all birds are ever much more noticed and dwelt upon than their beneficial acts. So it is, to an eminent degree, with the Crow Blackbird. Very few seem aware of the vast amount of benefit it confers on the farmer, but all know full well—and are bitterly prejudiced by the knowledge—the extent of the damages this bird causes.
They return to Pennsylvania about the middle of March, in large, loose flocks, at that time frequenting the meadows and ploughed fields, and their food then consists almost wholly of grubs, worms, etc., of which they destroy prodigious numbers. In view of these services, and notwithstanding the havoc they commit on the crops of Indian corn, Wilson states that he should hesitate whether to consider these birds most as friends or as enemies, as they are particularly destructive to almost all the noxious worms, grubs, and caterpillars that infest the farmer’s fields, which, were they to be allowed to multiply unmolested, would soon consume nine tenths of all the productions of his labor, and desolate the country with the miseries of famine.
The depredations committed by these birds are almost wholly upon Indian corn, at different stages. As soon as its blades appear above the ground, after it has been planted, these birds descend upon the fields, pull up the tender plant, and devour the seeds, scattering the green blades around. It is of little use to attempt to drive them away with the gun. They only fly from one part of the field to another. And again, as soon as the tender corn has formed, these flocks, now replenished by the young of the year, once more swarm in the cornfields, tear off the husks, and devour the tender grains. Wilson has seen fields of corn in which more than half the corn was thus ruined.
These birds winter in immense numbers in the lower parts of Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia, sometimes forming one congregated multitude of several hundred thousands. On one occasion Wilson met, on the banks of the Roanoke, on the 20th of January, one of these prodigious armies of Crow Blackbirds. They rose, he states, from the surrounding fields with a noise like thunder, and, descending on the length of the road before him, they covered it and the fences completely with black. When they again rose, and after a few evolutions descended on the skirts of the high timbered woods, they produced a most singular and striking effect. Whole trees, for a considerable extent, from the top to the lowest branches, seemed as if hung with mourning. Their notes and screaming, he adds, seemed all the while like the distant sounds of a great cataract, but in a more musical cadence.
A writer in the American Naturalist (II. 326), residing in Newark, N. Y., notes the advent of a large number of these birds to his village. Two built their nest inside the spire of a church. Another pair took possession of a martin-house in the narrator’s garden, forcibly expelling the rightful owners. These same birds also attempted to plunder the newly constructed nests of the Robins of their materials. They were, however, successfully resisted, the Robins driving the Blackbirds away in all cases of contest.
The Crow Blackbird nests in various situations, sometimes in low bushes, more frequently in trees, and at various heights. A pair, for several years, had their nest on the top of a high fir-tree, some sixty feet from the ground, standing a few feet from my front door. Though narrowly watched by unfriendly eyes, no one could detect them in any mischief. Not a spear of corn was molested, and their food was exclusively insects, for which they diligently searched, turning over chips, pieces of wood, and loose stones. Their nests are large, coarsely but strongly made of twigs and dry plants, interwoven with strong stems of grasses. When the Fish Hawks build in their neighborhood, Wilson states that it is a frequent occurrence for the Grakles to place their nests in the interstices of those of the former. Sometimes several pairs make use of the same Hawk’s nest at the same time, living in singular amity with its owner. Mr. Audubon speaks of finding these birds generally breeding in the hollows of trees. I have never met with their nests in these situations, but Mr. William Brewster says he has found them nesting in this manner in the northern part of Maine. Both, however, probably refer to the var. æneus.
The eggs of the Grakle exhibit great variations in their ground-color, varying from a light greenish-white to a deep rusty-brown. The former is the more common color. The eggs are marked with large dashes and broad, irregular streaks of black and dark brown, often presenting a singular grotesqueness in their shapes. Eggs with a deep brown ground are usually marked chiefly about the larger end with confluent, cloudy blotches of deeper shades of the same. The eggs measure 1.25 inches by .90.
Var. æneus, RIDGWAY.
BRONZED GRAKLE.
Quiscalus versicolor, AUD. Orn. Biog. pl. vii; Birds Am. IV, pl. ccxxi (figure, but not description).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 555 (western specimens).—SAMUELS, 352. Quiscalus æneus, RIDGWAY, Pr. Phil. Acad., June, 1869. 134.
SP. CHAR. Length, 12.50 to 13.50; wing, 6.00; tail, 6.00; culmen, 1.26; tarsus, 1.32. Third and fourth quills longest and equal; first shorter than fifth; projection of primaries beyond secondaries, 1.28; graduation of tail, 1.48.
Metallic tints rich, deep, and uniform. Head and neck all round rich silky steel-blue, this strictly confined to these portions, and abruptly defined behind, varying in shade from an intense Prussian blue to brassy-greenish, the latter tint always, when present, most apparent on the neck, the head always more violaceous; lores velvety-black. Entire body, above and below, uniform continuous metallic brassy-olive, varying to burnished golden olivaceous-bronze, becoming gradually uniform metallic purplish or reddish violet on wings and tail, the last more purplish; primaries violet-black; bill, tarsi, and toes pure black; iris sulphur-yellow.
HAB. Mississippi region of United States, east to Alleghany Mountains, west to Fort Bridger; Saskatchewan Region, Hudson’s Bay Territory; Labrador? and Maine (52,382, Calais, Me., G. A. Boardman). More or less abundant in all eastern States north of New Jersey.
This species may be readily distinguished from the Q. purpureus by the color alone, independently of the differences of proportions.
The impression received from a casual notice of a specimen of the Q. purpureus is that of a uniformly glossy black bird, the metallic tints being much broken or irregularly distributed, being frequently, or generally, arranged in successive bands on the feathers over the whole body, producing a peculiar iridescent effect. In the Q. æneus nothing of this character is seen; for, among a very large series of western specimens, not one has the body other than continuous bronze, the head and neck alone being green or blue, and this sharply and abruptly defined against the very different tint of the other portions. These colors, of course, have their extremes of variation, but the change is only in the shade of the metallic tints, the precise pattern being strictly retained. In the present species the colors are more vivid and silky than in the eastern, and the bird is, in fact, a much handsomer one. (Ridgway.)
Just after moulting, the plumage is unusually brilliant, the metallic tints being much more vivid.
HABITS. The Bronzed Blackbird has been so recently separated from the purpureus that we cannot give, with exactness or certainty, the area over which it is distributed. It is supposed to occupy the country west of the Alleghanies as far to the southwest as the Rio Grande and Fort Bridger, extending to the Missouri plains on the northwest, to the Saskatchewan in the north, and to Maine and Nova Scotia on the northeast. Subsequent explorations may somewhat modify this supposed area of distribution. It is at least known that this form occurs in Texas, in all the States immediately west of the Alleghanies, and in the New England States, as well as the vicinity of New York City.
In regard to its habits, as differing from those of purpureus, we are without any observations sufficiently distinctive to be of value. It reaches Calais about the first of April, and is a common summer visitant.
In the fall of 1869, about the 10th of October, several weeks after the Quiscali which had been spending the summer with us had disappeared, an unusually large number of these birds, in the bronzed plumage, made their appearance in the place; they seemed to come all together, but kept in smaller companies. One of these flocks spent the day, which was lowering and unpleasant, but not rainy, in my orchard. They kept closely to the ground, and seemed to be busily engaged in searching for insects. They had a single call-note, not loud, and seemingly one of uneasiness and watchfulness against danger. Yet they were not shy, and permitted a close approach. They remained but a day, and all were gone the following morning. On the day after their departure, we found that quite a number of apples had been bitten into. We had no doubt as to the culprits, though no one saw them in the act.
Audubon’s observations relative to the Crow Blackbird are chiefly made with reference to those seen in Louisiana, where this race is probably the only one found. The only noticeable peculiarity in his account of these birds is his statement that the Blackbirds of that State nest in hollow trees, a manner of breeding now known to be also occasional in the habits of the purpureus. The eggs of this form appear to exhibit apparently even greater variations than do those of the purpureus. One egg, measuring 1.10 inches by .85, has a bright bluish-green ground, plashed and spotted with deep brown markings. Another has a dull gray ground, sparingly marked with light brown; the measurement of this is 1.13 inches by .85. A third has a greenish-white ground, so profusely spotted with a russet-brown that the ground-color is hardly perceptible. It is larger and more nearly spherical, measuring 1.16 inches by .90. A fourth is so entirely covered with blotches, dots, and cloudings of dark cinnamon-brown that the ground can nowhere be traced.
Mr. Gideon Lincecum, of Long Point, Texas, writes, in regard to this species, that, in his neighborhood, they nest in rookeries, often on a large live oak. They build their nests on the top of large limbs. In favorable situations four or five nests can be looked into at once. They are at this time full of song, though never very melodious. The people of Texas shoot them, believing them to be injurious to their crops; but instead of being an injury they are an advantage, they destroy so many worms, grasshoppers, caterpillars, etc. They are migratory, and very gregarious. They all leave Texas in the winter, and the same birds return in the spring to the same nesting-places. They lay five eggs in a nest.
In Southern Illinois, as Mr. Ridgway informs me, these birds are resident throughout the year, though rather rare during the winter months. They breed in the greatest abundance, and are very gregarious in the breeding-season. On a single small island in the Wabash River, covered with tall willows, Mr. Ridgway found over seventy nests at one time. These were placed indifferently on horizontal boughs, in forks, or in excavations,—either natural or made by the large Woodpeckers (Hylotomus),—nests in all these situations being sometimes found in one tree. They prefer the large elms, cottonwoods, and sycamores of the river-bottoms as trees for nesting-places, but select rather thinly wooded situations, as old clearings, etc. In the vicinity of Calais, according to Mr. Boardman, they nest habitually in hollow stubs in marshy borders of brooks or ponds.
Var. aglæus, BAIRD.
FLORIDA GRAKLE.
Quiscalus baritus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 556, pl. xxxii (not of Linn.). Quiscalus aglæus, BAIRD, Am. Jour. Sci. 1866, 84.—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S. 1866, 44.—RIDGWAY, Pr. A. N. S. 1869, 135. Q. purpureus, ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 291.
SP. CHAR. Length, 10.60; wing, 5.20; tail, 5.12; culmen, 1.40; tarsus, 1.40. Second and third quills equal and longest; first shorter than fourth; projection of primaries beyond secondaries, 1.12; graduation of tail, 1.00.
Bill very slender and elongated, the tip of upper mandible abruptly decurved; commissure very regular.
Metallic tints very dark. Head and neck all round well defined violaceous steel-blue, the head most bluish, the neck more purplish and with a bronzy cast in front; body uniform soft, dull, bronzy greenish-black, scarcely lustrous; wings, upper tail-coverts, and tail blackish steel-blue, the wing-coverts tipped with vivid violet-bronze; belly and crissum glossed with blue.
HAB. South Florida.
This race is quite well marked, though it grades insensibly into the var. purpureus. It differs from both that and æneus in much smaller size, with more slender and more decurved bill.
The arrangement of the colors is much as in the larger western species, while the tints are most like those of the eastern. All the colors are, however, darker, but at the same time softer than in either of the others.
In form this species approaches nearest the western, agreeing with it in the primaries, slender bill, and more graduated tail, and, indeed, its relations in every respect appear to be with this rather than the eastern.
This race was first described from specimens collected at Key Biscayne by Mr. Wurdemann, in April, 1857, and in 1858, and is the smallest of the genus within our limits. The wing and tail each are about an inch shorter than in the other varieties of purpureus. The bill, however, is much longer and more slender, and the tip considerably more produced and decurved. The feet are stouter and much coarser, the pads of the toes very scabrous, as if to assist in holding slippery substances, a feature scarcely seen in purpureus.[49]
HABITS. This race or species seems to be confined exclusively to the peninsula of Florida. We have no notes as to any of its peculiarities, nor do we know that it exhibits any differences of manners or habits from those of its more northern relatives.
Of its eggs I have seen but few specimens. These do not exhibit much variation. The ground-color shades from a light drab to one with a greenish tinge. They average 1.17 inches in length by .85 in breadth, are more oblong in shape, and are very strikingly marked with characters in black and dark brown, resembling Arabic and Turkish letters.
[49] A series of twenty-nine specimens of Q. purpureus from Florida, has been kindly furnished for examination by Mr. C. J. Maynard, chiefly from the northern and middle portions of the State, and consequently intermediate between the varieties aglæus and purpureus. In color, however, they are nearly all essentially, most of them typically, like the former; but in size and proportions they scarcely differ from more northern specimens of the latter. Their common and nearly constant features of coloration are, uniform soft dark greenish body, with blue tinge on belly, and bluish-green tail-coverts and tail, violet head, more blue anteriorly and more bronzy on the foreneck, and with this color abruptly defined posteriorly against the peculiar uniform blackish dull green of the body; the wing-coverts usually tipped with vivid violet and green spots. One male is a typical example of the var. purpureus, distinguished by the blending of the similar metallic tints on the body and head, the broken tints on the body arranged in transverse bars on the back, more purple tail-coverts, and lack of the vivid metallic tips to the wing-coverts. There are also four nearly typical specimens of the var. aglæus, these probably from farther south on the peninsula, but with the characteristics of the race less exaggerated than in the types from the keys. The measurements of this series are as follows:—
Var. purpureus (one specimen). ♂. Wing, 5.30; tail, 4.65; culmen, 1.38.
Intermediate specimens. Typical aglæus in colors, but like purpureus in size. (16 males, and 17 females). ♂. Wing, 4.85 to 5.50; tail, 4.60 to 5.50; culmen, 1.25 to 1.50. ♀. Wing, 4.65 to 4.90; tail, 3.80 to 4.50; culmen, 1.10 to 1.30.
Var. aglæus (four specimens). ♂. Wing, 5.30 to 5.60; tail, 5.00 to 5.30; culmen, 1.38 to 1.40.
Quiscalus major, VIEILL.
BOAT-TAILED GRAKLE; JACKDAW.
Gracula barita, WILSON, Index Am. Orn. VI, 1812 (not of LINNÆUS). Gracula quiscala, ORD. J. A. N. Sc. I, 1818, 253 (not of LINNÆUS). Quiscalus major, VIEILLOT, Nouv. Dict. XXVIII, 1819, 487.—BON. Am. Orn. I, 1825, 35, pl. iv.—IB. List, 1838.—IB. Consp. 1850, 424.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 504; V, 1838, 480, pl. clxxxvii, IB. Syn. 1839, 146.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 52, pl. ccxx.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 555.—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S. 1867, 409.—ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 295.—COUES, Ibis, N. S. IV, No. 23, 1870, 367 (Biography). Chalcophanes major, “TEMM.” CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851, 196.
SP. CHAR. (1,563.) Form rather lengthened, but robust; bill strong, about the length of head; wing rather long, second and third quills usually longest, though the first four quills are frequently nearly equal; tail long, graduated; lateral feathers about 2.50 inches shorter than the central; legs and feet strong.
Adult male. Black; head and neck with a fine purple lustre, rather abruptly defined on the lower part of the neck behind, and succeeded by a fine green lustre which passes into a purple or steel-blue on the lower back and upper tail-coverts. On the under parts the purple lustre of the head and neck passes more gradually into green on the abdomen; under tail-coverts usually purplish-blue, frequently plain black. Smaller wing-coverts with green lustre; larger coverts greenish-bronze; quills frequently plain black, with a greenish or bronzed edging and slight lustre. Tail usually with a slight bluish or greenish lustre, frequently plain black. Bill and feet black. Iris yellow. Total length about 15 inches; wing, 7.00; tail, 6.50 to 7.00.
Adult female. Smaller. Upper parts dark brown, lighter on the head and neck behind; darker and nearly a dull black on the lower part of the back and upper tail-coverts; under parts lighter, dull yellowish-brown; tibiæ and under tail-coverts darker; wings and tail dull brownish-black; upper parts frequently with a slight greenish lustre. Total length, about 12.50; wing, 5.50 to 6.00; tail, 5.50. (CASSIN.)
HAB. Coast region of South Atlantic and Gulf States of North America. Galveston and Houston, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 494).
HABITS. The Boat-tailed Grakle, or Jackdaw, of the Southern States, is found in all the maritime portions of the States that border both on the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, from North Carolina to Rio Grande. In Western Texas it does not seem to be abundant. Lieutenant Couch met with only a single specimen at Brownsville, in company with Q. macrurus. Mr. Dresser, when at Houston and at Galveston in May and June, 1864, noticed several of these birds. Mr. Salvin mentions finding them as far south as the Keys of the Belize coast.
We learn from the observations of Mr. Audubon that this species is more particularly attached to the maritime portions of the country. It rarely goes farther inland than forty or fifty miles, following the marshy banks of the larger streams. It occurs in great abundance in the lower portions of Louisiana, though not found so high up the Mississippi as Natchez. It also abounds in the Sea Islands on the coast of the Carolinas, and in the lowlands of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Dr. Coues states that this species hardly occurs in any abundance north of the Carolinas, and that it is restricted to a narrow belt along the coast of the ocean and gulf, from North Carolina throughout our entire shore to Mexico. He supposed it to stop there, and to be replaced by the macrurus. Though the larger proportion of these birds pass beyond our southern boundaries to spend the winter, a few, chiefly old males, are resident in North Carolina throughout the year. In the spring the females are the first to appear. Just before the mating has taken place, the flocks of these birds are said to execute sudden and unaccountable evolutions, as if guided by some single commanding spirit; now hovering uncertain, then dashing impulsive, now veering in an instant, and at last taking a long, steady flight towards some distant point. During this period, Dr. Coues further informs us, their voices crack, and they utter a curious medley of notes from bass to falsetto, a jingling, unmusical jargon that is indescribable.
The laying-season is said to be at its height during the latter part of April. He found in no instance more than six eggs in a nest, nor less than three. He thinks that they have two, and perhaps three, broods in a season, as he found it not uncommon to meet with newly fledged birds in September.
These birds are eminently gregarious at all seasons of the year, and at certain seasons assemble in large flocks. They are omnivorous, eating both insects and grain, and are alternately benefactors and plunderers of the planters. In the early season they seek their food among the large salt marshes of the seaboard, and along the muddy banks of creeks and rivers. They do great damage to the rice plantations, both when the grain is in the soft state and afterwards when the ripened grain is stacked. They also feed very largely upon the small crabs called fiddlers, so common in all the mud flats, earthworms, various insects, shrimps, and other aquatic forms of the like character.
A few of these birds are resident throughout the year, though the greater part retire farther south during a portion of the winter. They return in February, in full plumage, when they mate. They resort, by pairs and in companies, to certain favorite breeding-places, where they begin to construct their nests. They do not, however, even in Florida, begin to breed before April. They build a large and clumsy nest, made of very coarse and miscellaneous materials, chiefly sticks and fragments of dry weeds, sedges, and strips of bark, lined with finer stems, fibrous roots, and grasses, and have from three to five eggs.
It is a very singular but well-established characteristic of this species, that no sooner is their nest completed and incubation commenced than the male birds all desert their mates, and, joining one another in flocks, keep apart from the females, feeding by themselves, until they are joined by the young birds and their mothers in the fall.
These facts and this trait of character in this species have been fully confirmed by the observations of Dr. Bachman of Charleston. In 1832 he visited a breeding-locality of these birds. On a single Smilax bush he found more than thirty nests of the Grakles, from three to five feet apart, some of them not more than fifteen inches above the water, and only females were seen about the nests, no males making their appearance. Dr. Bachman also visited colonies of these nests placed upon live-oak trees thirty or forty feet from the ground, and carefully watched the manners of the old birds, but has never found any males in the vicinity of their nests after the eggs had been laid. They always keep at a distance, feeding in flocks in the marshes, leaving the females to take charge of their nests and young. They have but one brood in a season.
As these birds fly, in loose flocks, they continually utter a peculiar cry, which Mr. Audubon states resembles or may be represented by kirrick, crick, crick. Their usual notes are harsh, resembling loud, shrill whistles, and are frequently accompanied with their ordinary cry of crick-crick-cree. In the love-season these notes are said to be more pleasing, and are changed into sounds which Audubon states resemble tirit, tirit, titiri-titiri-titirēē, rising from low to high with great regularity and emphasis. The cry of the young bird, when just able to fly, he compares to the whistling cry of some kind of frogs.
The males are charged by Mr. Audubon with attacking birds of other species, driving them from their nests and sucking their eggs.
Dr. Bryant, who found this species the most common bird in the neighborhood of Lake Monroe, adds that it could be seen at all times running along the edge of the water, almost in the manner of a Sandpiper. They were breeding by hundreds in the reeds near the inlet to the lake. On the 6th of April some of the birds had not commenced laying, though the majority had hatched, and the young of others were almost fledged.
The eggs of this species measure 1.25 inches in length by .92 in breadth. Their ground-color is usually a brownish-drab, in some tinged with olive, in others with green. Over this are distributed various markings, in lines, zigzags, and irregular blotches of brown and black.
Quiscalus major, var. macrurus, SW.
GREAT-TAILED GRAKLE.
Quiscalus macrourus, SWAINSON, Anim. in Menag. 2¼ centen. 1838, 299, fig. 51, a.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, pl. lviii.—IB. Mex. B. II, Birds, 20, pl. xx.—CASSIN, Pr. A. N. S. 1867, 410. Chalcophanes macrurus, CAB. Mus. Hein. 1851, 196.
SP. CHAR. (The largest species of this genus.) Form lengthened but robust, bill strong, longer than the head; wing long, third quill usually longest; tail long, graduated, outer feathers three to five inches shorter than those in the middle; legs and feet strong.
Adult male. Black; head, neck, back, and entire under parts with a fine bluish-purple lustre; lower part of back and the upper tail-coverts, and also the abdomen and under tail-coverts, frequently with green lustre, though in specimens apparently not fully adult those parts are sometimes bluish-brown, inclining to dark steel-blue. Wings and tail with a slight purplish lustre, smaller coverts with bluish-green, and larger coverts with greenish-bronze lustre. Bill and feet black. Iris yellow. Total length, 17.50 to 20.00; wing, about 8.00; tail, 8.00 to 10.50.
Female. Smaller, and generally resembling that of Q. major, but rather darker colored above. Entire upper parts dark brown, nearly black, and with a green lustre on the back; wings and tail dull brownish-black. Under parts light, dull yellowish-brown; paler on the throat, and with a trace of a narrow dark line from each side of the lower mandible. Tibiæ and under tail-coverts dark brown. Total length about 13.00; wing, 6.00; tail, 6.50. (CASSIN.)
HAB. Eastern Texas to Panama and Carthagena. Cordova (SCL. 1856, 300); Guatemala (SCL. Ibis. I, 20, eggs); Honduras (SCL. II, 112); Carthagena, N. 9 (CASS. R. A. S., 1860, 138); Costa Rica (CABAN. Journ. IX, 1861, 82; LAWR. IV, 104); Nicaragua (LAWR. N. Y. Lyc. VIII, 181); Rio Grande of Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 493, breeds); Vera Cruz (from hot to alpine regions; resident. SUMICHRAST, M. B. S. I, 553).
HABITS. The Great-tailed or Central American Grakle is an abundant species throughout Mexico and Central America, and probably extends to some distance into South America. In Vera Cruz, Sumichrast states it to be one of the few birds that are found in nearly equal abundance throughout the three regions, hot, temperate, and alpine, into which that department is physically divided. It is abundant everywhere throughout that State, and also nests there. In the neighborhood of Cordova and Orizaba it lives in large communities, a single tree being often loaded with the nests.
On the Rio Grande it extends into Texas, and thus qualifies itself for a place within our fauna. A few specimens were procured at Eagle Pass and elsewhere by the Mexican Boundary Survey party. It is more abundant on the western banks of the Rio Grande, especially at Matamoras. Among the MS. notes left by Dr. Kennerly is a part of the memoranda of the late Dr. Berlandier of that place. Under the name of Pica elegans the latter refers to what is evidently this species. He describes it as found in all parts of the Republic of Mexico, where it is known as Uraca, Pajaro negro, and, in Acapulco, Papate. It is found, he adds, abundantly throughout the State of Tamaulipas. It lives upon grain, especially corn, devouring the planted seeds and destroying the crops. It builds its nest in April, laying its eggs in the same month, and the young birds are hatched out by the beginning of May. The nests are large, the edges high, and the cavity correspondingly deep. They are constructed of dry plants and small bits of cloth, which the birds find about the settlements, and the bottom of the nest is plastered with clay, which gives it great firmness. This is covered with grasses and pieces of dry weeds. The eggs are described as large, of a pale leaden-gray or a rusty color, over which are black marks, stripes, lines, and spots without order or regularity. They are generally four in number. The nests are built on the tops of the highest trees, usually the willows or mesquites.
Mr. G. C. Taylor, in his notes on the birds of Honduras, states that he found this Blackbird common, and always to be met with about the villages. It appeared to be polygamous, the males being generally attended by several females. A fine male bird, with his accompanying females, frequented the court-yard of the Railroad House at Comayagua, where Mr. Taylor was staying. They generally sat on the roof of the house, or among the upper branches of some orange-trees that grew in the yard. They had a very peculiar cry, not unlike the noise produced by the sharpening of a saw, but more prolonged.
Mr. Salvin found the bird very abundant in Central America. In one of his papers relative to the birds of that region, he states that this species, in Guatemala, plays the part of the European House Sparrow. It seeks the abode of man, as does that familiar bird, and is generally found frequenting larger towns as well as villages. Stables are its favorite places of resort, where it scratches for its food among the ordure of the horses. It will even perch on the backs of these animals and rid them of their ticks, occasionally picking up stray grains of corn from their mangers. At Duenas he found it breeding in large societies, usually selecting the willows that grow near the lake and the reeds on the banks for its nest. The breeding season extends over some length of time. In May, young birds and fresh eggs may be found in nests in the same trees. On the coast, young birds, nearly capable of flying, were seen in the early part of March. Mr. Salvin adds that the nests are usually made of grass, and placed among upright branches, the grass being intwined around each twig, to support the structure. The eggs in that region were seldom found to exceed three in number.
Mr. Dresser found the Long-tailed Grakles very common at Matamoras, where they frequented the streets and yards with no signs of fear. They were breeding there in great quantities, building a heavy nest of sticks, lined with roots and grass. They were fond of building in company, and in the yard of the hotel he counted seven nests in one tree. At Eagle Pass, and as far east as the Nueces River, he found them not uncommon, but noticed none farther in the interior of Texas. Their usual note is a loud and not unmelodious whistle. They have also a very peculiar guttural note, which he compares to the sound caused by drawing a stick sharply across the quills of a dried goose-wing.
Captain McCown states that he observed these Blackbirds building in large communities at Fort Brown, Texas. Upon a tree standing near the centre of the parade-ground at that fort, a pair of the birds had built their nest. Just before the young were able to fly, one of them fell to the ground. A boy about ten years old discovered and seized the bird, which resisted stoutly, and uttered loud cries. These soon brought to its rescue a legion of old birds, which vigorously attacked the boy, till he was glad to drop the bird and take to flight. Captain McCown then went and picked up the young bird, when they turned their fury upon him, passing close to his head and uttering their sharp caw. He placed it upon a tree, and there left it, to the evident satisfaction of his assailants. These birds, he adds, have a peculiar cry, something like tearing the dry husk from an ear of corn. From this the soldiers called them corn-huskers. He often saw other and smaller birds building in the same tree. They were very familiar, and would frequently approach to within ten feet of a person.
The eggs measure 1.32 inches in length by .92 of an inch in breadth, and exhibit great variations both in ground-color and in the style and character of their marking. In some the ground-color is of a light grayish-white with a slight tinge of green or blue; in others it is of a light drab, and again many have a deep brownish-drab. The markings are principally of a dark brown, hardly distinguishable from black, distributed in the shape of drops, or broad irregular narrow plashes, or in waving zigzag lines and markings. Intermingled with these deeper and bolder markings are suffused cloud-like colorations of purplish-brown.
FAMILY STURNIDÆ.—THE STARLINGS
CHAR. General characters of the Icteridæ, but with a rudimentary first primary, making the total number ten.
The introduction of this family into the present work is required by the occurrence of the typical species, Sturnus vulgaris, in Greenland, although it otherwise characterizes the Old World exclusively. There are several subfamilies, principally African and East Indian (Lamprotornithinæ, Buphaginæ, Sturninæ, and Graculinæ), some of them of very brilliant plumage.
The Sturnidæ in many respects constitute a natural stage of transition from the Icteridæ to the Corvidæ, through the Jays.
GENUS STURNUS, LINNÆUS.
Sturnus, LINN. Syst. Nat., I, (ed. 10,) 1758, 167. (Type, S. vulgaris.)
[Line drawing: Sturnus vulgaris. 19020]
GEN. CHAR. Bill long, conical, much depressed; the culmen, gonys, and commissure nearly straight, the latter angulated at base. Wings, twice length of tail; much pointed, the primaries graduating rapidly from the second, the first being rudimentary, the secondaries much shorter. Tail nearly even; the feathers acuminate. Tarsi short; about equal to middle toe; lateral toes equal. Plumage coarse and stiff, each feather distinctly outlined.
The bill of Sturnus is very similar to that of Sturnella, although less inflected at the edges. The shorter tarsi, much longer wings, with the innermost secondaries much less than the primaries, etc., readily distinguish the two families.
Sturnus vulgaris, LINN.
THE STARLING.
Sturnus vulgaris, LINN. Syst. Nat. I, (ed. 10,) 1758, 167; (ed. 12,) 1766, 290.—DEGLAND & GERBE, Orn. Europ. I, 1867, 232.—REINHARDT, Ibis, 1861, 7 (Greenland).
SP. CHAR. Feathers principally lustrous-black, with purple and green reflections, except at their extremities, which are dull and opaque; brownish above, silvery-white beneath. Bill yellow in spring, brown in autumn. Legs flesh-color. Length about 8.51; wing, 5.11; tail, 2.81; bill above, 1.11, from nostril, .75; gape, 1.15; tarsus, 1.15; middle toe and claw, 1.15. Female similar, but less brilliant.
HAB. Europe and North Africa, most abundant in Holland. One specimen killed in Greenland, in 1851, and preserved in the Royal Zoölogical Museum of Copenhagen.
The preceding description will serve to distinguish the Starling from any North American species, although it is subject to considerable variation. A second form, scarcely distinguishable as a species (S. unicolor, De la Marmora), of a prevailing black color, without terminal spots, and with the feathers of the under part elongated, is found in Sardinia and Sicily.
HABITS. We give a place to the common Starling of Europe in the fauna of North America, as an occasional and rare visitant of Greenland. Only a single instance is on record of its actual capture,—a female taken by Holböll in 1851, and now in the Royal Museum of Copenhagen.
The well-known Starling of Europe is handsome in plumage and of graceful shape. It is numerous, as a species, is very generally distributed, and therefore very well known. With many it is a great favorite, and is also familiar as a caged bird. Its sprightly habits, retentive memory, and flexibility of voice, commend it as an interesting and entertaining pet. It has been taught to whistle tunes, and even to imitate the human voice, with facility and correctness. In its natural state it is a very social bird, and lives in flocks the greater part of the year.
Mr. Waterton, who was a great admirer of the Starling, sought to induce these birds to frequent his grounds, and with this view made various cavities in the walls of an old tower near his residence. His wishes were gratified, and soon every cavity he had made was taken possession of by a pair, and many more would have been thus domiciled had provision been made for them.
A similar instance is on record in Hamburg, where, within a few years, a well-known horticulturist induced nearly two hundred pairs of Starlings to occupy and to breed in wooden boxes put up in his grounds for their accommodation. His plants had been destroyed by the attacks of hosts of subterranean larvæ, and the Starlings were invited in the hope that they would remove this evil, which they did quite effectually.
Dr. Beverley Morris gives a very interesting account of a female Starling that he observed building a nest in a hollow tree. The male looked on, but took no part, except to drive away other intrusive birds. The female made on an average three trips a minute, with small twigs and bits of dry grass, taking sometimes three or four at a time. He estimated that in the space of six hours she had taken to her nest not less than a thousand sticks.
The Starling is said to select for its nest suitable places in church-steeples, the eaves of houses, and holes in walls, especially of old towers and ruins; occasionally it builds in hollow trees, in cliffs or in high rocks overhanging the sea, and also in dovecotes. The nests are made of slender twigs, straw, roots, and dry grasses. The birds incubate sixteen days. The old birds are devoted to their offspring.
Almost as soon as the nestlings are able to fly, different families unite to form large flocks, which may be seen feeding on commons and grass-grounds, in company with the Rooks and other birds. Their chief food consists of larvæ, worms, insects in various stages, and, at times, berries and grain. In confinement they are very fond of raw meat.
Mr. Yarrell, quoting Dr. Dean of Wells, gives an account of an extraordinary haunt of Starlings on an estate of a gentleman who had prepared the place for occupation by Pheasants. It was in a plantation of arbutus and laurustinus, covering some acres, to which these birds repaired, in the evening, almost by the million, coming from the low grounds about the Severn. A similar instance is given by Mr. Ball, of Dublin, of an immense swarm of several hundred thousand Starlings sleeping every night in a mass of thorn-trees at the upper end of the Zoölogical Garden in Phœnix Park.
The Starlings are found throughout Great Britain, even to the Hebrides and the Orkneys, where they are great favorites, and holes are left in the walls of the houses for their accommodation. They are common throughout Norway, Sweden, and the north of Europe, and as far east as the Himalayas and even Japan. They are also found in all the countries on both sides of the Mediterranean, and Mr. Gould states that they occur in Africa as far south as the Cape of Good Hope.
The eggs of the Starling are five in number, of a uniform delicate pale blue, oval in shape and rounded at one end; they measure 1.20 inches in length by .88 in breadth.
FAMILY CORVIDÆ.—THE CROWS
CHAR. Primaries ten; the first short, generally about half as long as the second (or a little more); the outer four sinuated on the inner edge. The nasal fossæ and nostrils usually more or less concealed by narrow, stiffened bristles (or bristly feathers), with short appressed lateral branches extending to the very tip, all directed forwards (these bristles occasionally wanting). Tarsi scutellate anteriorly, the sides undivided (except sometimes below), and separated from the anterior plates by a narrow naked strip, sometimes filled up with small scales. Basal joint of middle toe united about equally to the lateral, generally for about half the length. Bill generally notched.
The preceding characters distinguish the family of Crows quite markedly from all others. The features of the bristles on the bill, and the separation of the lateral and anterior scales by a narrow interval, are worthy of particular attention. The commissure is without the obtusely angular bend near the base, seen in the Icteridæ.
There are two sub-families of Corvidæ represented in America, one embracing the true Crows, the other the Jays. They pass very insensibly into each other, and it is difficult to mark the dividing line. We may, however, distinguish these, as found in the United States, by the following characters:—
Corvinæ. Bill as long as the head. Tail short, nearly even; wings long and pointed, longer than tail, and nearly reaching its tip; projecting beyond the under tail-coverts, which reach the middle of tail. Tip of wing formed by the third, fourth, and fifth quills, which are longest.
Garrulinæ. Bill usually shorter than head. Tail lengthened, rounded, and generally longer than the wings, which are short, rounded, and extend scarcely beyond the lower tail-coverts; these not reaching the middle of the tail. Tip of wing formed by the fourth, fifth, and sixth quills, which are longest.
The row of small scales is usually present on both sides of the tarsi in the Corvinæ, but in the Jays is generally restricted to the inner face.
SUBFAMILY CORVINÆ
CHAR. Wings long and pointed; longer than the tail, and, when closed, reaching nearly to its tip, extending far beyond the under tail-coverts; the third, fourth, and fifth quills forming the tip of the wing.
The following diagnosis may serve to distinguish the three genera of North American Corvinæ:—
A. (Corveæ). Bill compressed, much higher than broad; its tip compressed. Size large (i. e. over 15 inches long), color black, or mainly black.
Color black throughout; bill much compressed, the culmen much arched, and the gonys convex; nasal bristles strong Corvus.
B. (Nucifrageæ.) Bill cylindrical, scarcely or not at all higher than broad; its tip depressed. Size small (i. e. less than 15 inches long). Color uniform blue or with ashy on body, and black wings and tail.
Color ashy, with wings and tail mainly black. Culmen convex, gonys slightly concave. Nostrils covered by the short nasal tuft Picicorvus.
Color uniform blue, brighter on the head; the throat streaked with whitish. Culmen straight; gonys slightly convex. Nostrils completely exposed; no nasal tufts Gymnokitta.
GENUS CORVUS, LINNÆUS.
Corvus, LINNÆUS, Syst. Nat. 1735. (Type, Corvus corax, L.)
[Line drawing: Corvus carnivorus. 12442]
GEN. CHAR. The nasal feathers lengthened, reaching to or beyond the middle of the bill. Nostrils large, circular, overhung behind by membrane, the edges rounded elsewhere. Rictus without bristles. Bill nearly as long as the tarsus, very stout; much higher than broad at the base; culmen much arched. Wings reaching nearly or quite to the tip of the tail, the outer four primaries sinuated internally. Tarsi longer than the middle toe, with a series of small scales on the middle of each side separating the anterior scutellate portion from the posterior continuous plates. Sides of the head occasionally with nearly naked patches. Tail graduated or rounded.
Species and Varieties.
RAVENS. Feathers of the chin and throat stiffened, elongated, narrow and lanceolate, with their outlines very distinct.
1. C. corax var. carnivorus. Length about 25.00; wing, 17.00; tail, 10.00; graduation of tail, 1.60 to 2.40. Feathers of the neck and breast light gray beneath surface. Hab. Whole of North America; Guatemala and Mexico. Rare in Eastern United States.
2. C. cryptoleucus. Length about 21.00; wing, 14.00; tail, 8.50; graduation of tail, about 1.25. Feathers of neck and breast snowy-white beneath surface. Hab. Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain of Texas; Arizona; Colorado.
CROWS. Feathers of chin and throat soft, short, broad, obtuse, and with their webs blended.
A. Angle of mouth feathered—North American Crows.
a. Tarsus longer than the bill. First quill not longer than tenth.
3. C. americanus. The gloss of the plumage purplish-violet, and hardly perceptible on head and neck, middle toe and claw rather shorter than tarsus, measured from beginning of scutellæ.
Wing, 12.25; tail, 7.20; culmen, 1.85; tarsus, 2.00; middle toe, 1.45; wing-formula, 4, 3, 5, 6, 2; first quill equal to tenth. Hab. North America generally var. americanus.[50]
Wing, 12.50; tail, 7.20; culmen, 2.10; tarsus, 2.30; middle toe, 1.60. Wing-formula? (moulting). Hab. South Florida var. floridanus.
4. C. ossifragus. The gloss of plumage violaceous-blue, almost green on the head, neck, and breast, where very perceptible. Middle toe and claw longer than tarsus, as above. Wing, 10.50; tail, 6.50; culmen, 1.55; tarsus, 1.65; middle toe, 1.35. Wing-formula, 4, 3, 5; first quill slightly shorter than tenth. Hab. Atlantic Coast of the United States.
b. Tarsus shorter than the bill. First quill longer than tenth.
5. C. caurinus. Gloss of the plumage as in americanus, but deeper. Wing, 10.50; tail, 6.40; culmen, 1.95; tarsus, 1.70; middle toe, 1.25. Wing-formula, 4, 3, 5. Hab. Northwestern coast of North America.
6. C. mexicanus.[51] Plumage highly lustrous, blended. Soft burnished steel-blue, changing to violet on the crown, and with a greenish cast on lower parts. Wing, 9.00; tail, 6.50; culmen, 1.60; tarsus, 1.20; middle toe, 1.10. Wing-formula, 4, 3, 5. First quill very much longer than tenth. Hab. Western Mexico (Mazatlan, etc.).
B. Angle of mouth naked—West Indian Crows.
a. Tarsus much shorter than the bill.
7. C. nasicus.[52] Nostrils scarcely concealed by the short nasal bristles. Entirely violaceous-black, the feathers smoky-gray beneath the surface. Wing, 11.00; tail, 7.75; culmen, 2.45; depth of bill, .80; tarsus, 1.95; middle toe, 1.50; graduation of tail about 1.00; wing-formula, 4, 3, 5, 6, 2; first quill shortest. Hab. Cuba.
8. C. leucognaphalus.[53] Nostrils well concealed by the longer, but rather scant, nasal bristles. Entirely violaceous-black, the feathers of the neck all round, breast and sides, pure white below the surface. Wing, 12.50; tail, 9.00; culmen, 2.45; depth of bill, .95; tarsus, 2.15; middle toe, 1.50; graduation of tail about 1.25. Wing-formula, 4, 5, 3, 6, 2; first quill much the shortest. Hab. Porto Rico.
b. Tarsus about equal to bill.
9. C. jamaicensis.[54] Nostrils just covered by the short but dense tuft of nasal bristles. Entirely dark sooty-plumbeous, inclining to black on the head, wings, and tail, where is a very faint violaceous gloss. Wing, 9.50; tail, 6.50; culmen, 2.00; depth of bill, 1.70; tarsus, 2.05; middle toe, 1.35; graduation of tail, about .60. Wing-formula, 5, 4, 3, 6, 2; first shortest. Hab. Jamaica.
[50] The measurements given are of a California specimen, in order the better to show the great distinction to be made between this species and caurinus, which is probably not found in California, being a more northern species, and having the coast of Washington Territory, or perhaps Oregon, as about its southern limit.
[51] C. mexicanus, GMEL. Syst. Nat. p. 375. This species is perfectly distinct from all the others. The plumage has a silky blended character, and very high lustre, almost exactly as in the larger Grakles (Quiscalus major, etc.).
[52] C. nasicus, TEMM. Pl. Col. 413.—GUNDL. Rev. y Catal. de las Aves de Cuba., 1865, 290. Corvus americanus, LEMB. Aves de Cuba, 1830, 65. Hab. Cuba.
[53] C. leucognaphalus, DAUD. Tr. d’Orn. II, 231.—SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 232.—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1866, XI, 94. Hab. Porto Rico and Santo Domingo.
[54] C. jamaicensis, GM. S. N. I, 367.—GOSSE, B. Jam. 209.—SCL. Catal. Am. B. 1860, 146.—BONAP. Consp. 385.—SALLÉ, P. Z. S. 1857, 232.—MARCH, P. A. N. S. 1863, 300.—BRYANT, Pr. Bost. Soc. 1866, XI, 94. Hab. Jamaica and Santo Domingo.
The C. minutus of Cuba we have not seen; it seems, however, to be rather nearly related to C. ossifragus, and possesses more lengthened nasal plumes than the three West Indian species diagnosed above. Its synonomy is as follows:—
Corvus minutus, GUNDL. Cab. J. 1856, 20, p. 97.—IB. Rev. y Catal. de las Aves de Cuba. Hab. Cuba.
Corvus corax, var. carnivorus, BARTRAM.
AMERICAN RAVEN.
Corvus carnivorus, BARTRAM, Travels in E. Florida, 1793, 290.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 560, pl. xxi.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 210, pl. xxi.—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1866, 225.—LORD, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 1864, 121 (British Columbia).—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Ch. Ac. I, 1869, 285 (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. I, 1870, 282.—SAMUELS, 355. Corvus corax, WILSON, Am. Orn. IX, 1825, 136, pl. lxxv. f. 3.—BONAP. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 36.—IB. Syn. 1828, 56.—DOUGHTY, Cab. N. H. I, 1830, 270, pl. xxiv.—RICH. F. B. Am. II, 1831, 290.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 202.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 476, pl. ci.—IB. Syn. 1839, 150.—IB. Birds Am. IV. 1842, 78, pl. ccxxiv.—HEERM. X, S, 54.—FINSCH, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 40 (Alaska). Corvus cacalotl, “WAGLER,” ? BONAP. Pr. Zoöl. Soc. 1837, 115 (perhaps true cacalotl).—IB. List, 1838 (probably not of Wagler).—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 387.—MAXIMILIAN, Reise innere Nord Amer. II, 1841, 289 (does not consider it different from European).—NEWBERRY, P. R. R. Rep. VI, IV, 1857, 82. Corvus lugubris, AGASSIZ, Pr. Bost. Soc. N. H. II, Dec. 1846, 188.—IB. Caban. J. VI, 1858, 195.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 563, pl. xx.—KENNERLY, P. R. R. X. b. pl. xxii. Corvus, var. littoralis, “HOLBÖLL, Kroger Tidsk. IV, 1843, 390.”—SCHLEGEL, note on Corvus.
SP. CHAR. Fourth quill longest; third and fifth about equal; second between fifth and sixth; first nearly equal to the eighth. Length, about 24.00 or 25.00; extent, 50.00 to 51.00; wing, about 17.00; tail, 10.00. Tail moderately graduated; the outer feather about 1.60 to 2.40 inches less than the middle. Entirely glossy black, with burnished violet reflections.
HAB. Entire continent of North America. Rare east of the Mississippi. South to Guatemala.
Though easily distinguishable from the European bird, the American Raven is so nearly related to it as to be beyond doubt referrible to it as a variety. The differences presented in a very large series of both forms are, however, very constant and tangible. In the American bird the bill is always longer and less deep, and the plumage is more highly burnished, while the wings, especially the secondaries, are perceptibly of a more reddish violet than the other portions. Though in an immense series of American specimens many differences of form and size are noted, yet there is nothing sufficiently characteristic of any particular region to indicate more than one variety. As a rule, however, specimens from the high north exceed in size those from elsewhere, and have the bill more robust, though not so short as in the European bird; while those from the Middle Province and Mexico to Guatemala (= “cacalotl,” Baird et Auct.) have the plumage more brilliant than others, and frequently the bill very narrow.
HABITS. Assuming that we must consider as but one species the two differing forms of Raven found in North America, we find this bird more or less common throughout nearly the whole continent. It is much more abundant in some regions than in others, and, as a general rule, is much more common and also more generally distributed in the western portion, where also its habits are remarkably different from the manners of its eastern representative.
It seems to be more or less common throughout the Arctic regions. Mr. Kennicott met with Ravens at Lake Winnipeg. Mr. MacFarlane found them abundant at Lockhart River, at Fort Anderson, and on the Lower Anderson River. Mr. Ross obtained them at Fort Simpson, Mr. Reid at Big Island, Mr. Clarke at Fort Rae, Mr. Lockhart at Fort Resolution, and Mr. Dall at Nulato, in Alaska.
Richardson speaks of it as abounding in the fur countries, where it frequents the barren grounds even in the intense winter cold, and where its movements are regulated by those of reindeer, musk-oxen, and other animals, which it follows, to assist in devouring whatever may be killed. Ravens are seen to collect from various quarters wherever any animal is slain, in order to feast on the offal, and considerable numbers are in constant attendance upon the several fishing-stations. He mentions a singular instance of the disposition of this bird to appropriate glittering objects of no value to it for food or anything else. A Raven was seen flying off with something in its claws, pursued by a number of its clamorous companions. Having been fired at, it dropped the object of contention, which proved to be the lock of a chest.
Mr. MacFarlane’s notes in regard to the nesting of these birds describe certain variations as to position, etc. One nest was on a ledge of a cliff of shale, and was composed of dry willow sticks, lined with pieces of rabbit skin and the hair of moose. Both parents were seen,—one on the nest, the other on a tree,—but both flew away on being approached. A second nest was in the top crotch of a tall pine on the river-bank. It was made of dry sticks, and thickly lined with reindeer hair. There were eight eggs in this nest. A third was in a tall pine, and was forty-five feet from the ground. It was constructed in a manner precisely similar to the preceding. A fourth was on the top of a tall pine, and only differed in having been lined with dry grass, moss, and a few reindeer hairs. The other nests appear to have been similarly situated and constructed. Nearly all were in high trees, built of dry sticks, and lined with dry grasses, mosses, and the hair of various quadrupeds. The maximum number of eggs was eight, their average six.
Mr. MacFarlane states that the Raven is found throughout the winter in the Arctic regions, and that, though he has met with it north of latitude 69°, he has never known it to breed north of that line. He informs us that it is seldom that more than a single pair is to be seen at a time, and occasionally they may be noted singly, flying alone, or feeding on garbage. Sometimes a dead fox or wolf will attract quite a number to the spot. On one occasion he observed as many as twenty Ravens amicably associated together around the carcasses of two wolves that had been poisoned with strychnine. In many cases he has known the partaking of a poisoned animal prove fatal to them, as also the eating of bait laid for foxes and wolves.
According to this same correspondent, one of these birds became almost domesticated at Fort Anderson, during February and March, 1865. At first it fed about the fort with a companion; soon after, coming alone, it grew bolder and bolder, alighted within the square, allowed itself to be closely approached, where the young dogs soon became familiar with it, and would even frolic and gambol with it, the Raven joining heartily in the sport in its own way. It was never known to attempt to injure even the smallest of the young dogs, nor did any of the dogs ever offer to annoy it. It at length came to be considered by all as an inmate of the establishment. While it seemed to have full confidence in the people of the fort, it kept at a careful distance from all Indian or Esquimaux visitors.
Mr. B. R. Ross speaks of Ravens as common as far north as the Arctic Ocean. They feed on carrion, and act as scavengers to the establishments. Their sight is remarkably keen, and the sagacity with which they follow the trapper is wonderful. Early as the hunter may start, these harpies will have been before him, and torn out the eyes and entrails of each hare. They will break into marten-traps for the sake of the bait or the captured animal, thrusting aside or pulling out with their beaks the sticks that compose the enclosure. Sometimes they are caught in steel traps that are set for foxes, or eat the strychnine baits laid for the same animals, and slowly succumb to this powerful poison. Their flesh is so rank that even a fox, unless sorely pressed by hunger, will not eat it. They pair in April, and usually construct their nests in the loftiest trees. They have various call-notes, one of which is like that of the Canada Goose, and another is said by Mr. Ross to be very liquid and musical.
Mr. Dall states that these birds were abundant all the year at Nulato, and indeed everywhere throughout Alaska, but much more common near the Indian villages and trading-posts than elsewhere. They build on the sandstone cliffs at Nulato, in cavities that have been occupied for years. They lay about the 20th of April, and the young are hatched before open water. He also speaks of them as very intelligent, and states that on several expeditions made to obtain their eggs, the instant he stopped at the foot of the bluff the whole colony would arrange themselves on the edge of the rock in anxious consultation, uttering repeated cries of warning. On one occasion, where the nest was inaccessible and the party went back unsuccessful, their departure was announced by significant and joyous croaks and derisive screeches. Ravens were also found by Mr. Bannister common all the year on the small islands lying off the northeast point of St. Michaels.
In the Eastern States the Raven is a comparatively rare bird, except in a few special localities. These are usually mountain-ranges, high precipitous banks of rivers and lakes and of the ocean, and among wild and lonely islands. It occurs on the Labrador coast, at Grand Menan in the Bay of Fundy, the Adirondacks, Lake George, the Hudson River, etc. Mr. Lawrence speaks of it as quite common on the coast of New Jersey. It is found among the mountains of Buncombe and other counties in North Carolina, and Mr. Audubon mentions its occurrence at Table Mountain, in the district of Pendleton, South Carolina. Dr. Coues found Ravens not rare at Labrador, where the almost inaccessible cliffs afford them safe and convenient retreats. They were so excessively wary that it was found impossible to shoot them. They descended in pairs to the sea-shore to feed on dead fish, crabs, and other animal substances thrown up by the sea.
Mr. Ridgway informs me of the presence of this bird in the heavy forests of the bottom-lands in Southern Illinois. It is there quite rare, however, as he has met with but a few pairs. These were resident, and nested in the tall timber of the Big Creek bottoms, in Richland Co.
Audubon’s party found it equally impossible to obtain a specimen at Labrador. One afternoon Mr. Audubon hid himself under a nest several hours, to no purpose. The old Ravens would not show themselves while he was within gunshot, though the young clamored for food. As soon as he had left the spot the female alighted on the nest, fed her young, and was off again before she could be approached.
At Grand Menan, where they are not rare, and where they breed among the high cliffs, I found them so wild that it was almost impossible even to obtain sight of them. Passing high in the air above our heads, their loud, hoarse croak attested their alarm at the sight of their enemy, man. They are looked upon with aversion by the islanders, and are persecuted by them without mercy. They rob the nests of the Herring Gulls, interfering with the islanders in this privilege, and are, wrongfully I believe, charged with destroying young lambs.
Years afterwards, when I again encountered individuals of this species at Cheyenne, on the Plains, I could not but notice the immense difference in their character. There perfect confidence in man took the place of dread. Unmolested by the people, who regard them as desirable scavengers, valueless for food and useful in removing nuisances, they were as tame and familiar as the European Sparrow in the parks of New York or Boston. On one occasion I found one engaged in eating the remains of a dead cow just outside the city. It allowed me to approach to within five or six feet, when with a very stately and dignified stride it moved out of my way, and kept me at about this distance. I could not compel it to fly to any distance, even when I hastened my steps.
In New England these birds are very rare, and their occurrence is only accidental. One has been shot on the Connecticut, and another on the Merrimack, in Massachusetts. They are not unfrequently met with in Northern New York.
On the Pacific Coast the Raven is common from Sitka to San Diego. Throughout Washington Territory it is said to be plentiful, more scattered in the summer, and in the winter congregating about settlements and the sea-shore. At Vancouver, during the winter, it was observed amicably associating with the Crows, and on the coast with the Fish Crows, but during the spring, when the latter had nests, they boldly attacked the Ravens, and drove them away.
In California and in all the adjacent regions, Dr. Cooper states, the Raven is found everywhere in pairs, more numerous than in the Atlantic States, and abundant even in the most barren desert districts. It follows trains and herds of cattle, and keeps on the lookout for anything befalling them. It is omnivorous, eating snakes, lizards, eggs, carrion, and even grain, though the last very rarely. It is accused of destroying young chickens and lambs.
In Arizona Dr. Coues speaks of it as resident, and very abundant about the cattle enclosures, where it congregates in immense numbers during the autumn and winter. During the severe winter of 1864-65 great numbers perished of cold and hunger at Fort Whipple. Dr. Coues has favored us with the following interesting sketch of the habits of this bird as observed by him in that Territory.
“The geographical distribution of the Raven seems to be in great measure complementary to that of the Crow. On the prairies, in the desert, among the mountains, of the Western States and Territories, where the Ravens and their congenial companions, the coyotes, abound, the Crows are rare or wanting altogether. In travelling westward, I saw no Crows after leaving the settlements this side of the Plains, while the Ravens were conspicuous, until in some parts of Southern California Crows reappeared, but no Ravens amongst them. I saw a fair number of Ravens along the Arkansas River, and they were frequent in the valley of the Rio Grande; after crossing the river, while traversing the wild region thence to the Colorado, they were our inseparable companions; hundreds, if not thousands, of them lived about Fort Whipple all the year, seemingly attracted from miles around by probabilities of finding abundant food. Throughout the Western wilds they hang on the footsteps of man, needy adventurers, claiming their share of his spoils, disputing with the wolves and vultures for the refuse of his camp, and polishing the skeletons of the buffalo, with which he sometimes strews the plain. The more desolate the land, the closer the Raven follows in the trail of the emigrant, till its dismal croaking sounds ominous of hardship, and its plumage seems to foreshadow days as dark.
“One accustomed to the shrewdness and prudence of Crows in populous districts is at first surprised at an apparent familiarity the Raven often shows in the West. There no one would think of wasting ammunition on the worthless bird, and it comes to look upon man more as its provider than as an enemy. Nevertheless, like the rest of its tribe, the Raven is a sagacious bird, not likely to be twice deceived, and very ready to take a hint; he always has his wits about him, and keeps a bright lookout when anything stranger than a coyote is near. This wariness is something altogether different from the childlike timidity of little birds like Sparrows, that scurry away in terror from any unusual sight or sound, and unquestionably implies keen powers of observation coupled with no small degree of reasoning faculty. Almost every day during the winter of 1864-65 I must have passed within a few paces of Ravens stalking about the fort; and yet, when I wanted a specimen, it was not an easy matter to secure one. The birds assuredly knew the difference between a person going quietly about his business and one “on mischief bent,” and their intelligent watchfulness rendered it quite impossible to approach them openly with gun in hand.
“Ravens are resident in the region about Fort Whipple, and their apparently diminished number in summer is simply due to the fact that they are then spread over a greater surface, are less restless, and better provided for in the matter of food. In winter, and especially when snow covered the ground, their numbers at the fort were simply incalculable. They dotted the ground everywhere during the day, and roosted in crowds on the neighboring pines by night. One patriarchal tree, that stood somewhat isolated, was a favorite resting-place for the Ravens and Buzzards, and gradually assumed a singular appearance, as if it had been whitewashed. This great pine overlooked a little open space where our beeves were slaughtered, and the banqueting there was never ended. All night long the wolves howled and barked as they tugged at the offal, till daylight sent them reluctant to their rocky fastnesses, when the great dark birds, with a premonitory stretching of the wings, flapped down to renew the feast. The Ravens and Buzzards seemed to get along very well together, quarrelling no more with each other than each species did with its own kind; but in the occasional disputes the smaller birds seemed to have rather the advantage of the heavier and clumsier gluttons. This comparative good-fellowship was in striking contrast to the behavior of Crows towards Turkey Buzzards.
“The Raven is not, on the whole, so noisy a bird as the Crow, though he croaks vigorously on occasion, and his caw may claim to be impressive, if not agreeable. But the queer sounds that the bird can utter, if he be so minded, are indescribable; even his ordinary cawing is susceptible of considerable modulation. A favorite amusement of his, when, his hunger appeased for the time, he feels particularly comfortable, is to settle snugly on the top of a pine-tree, and talk to himself. The performance generally begins with a loud caw, self-asserting, followed by a complacent chuckle; and then comes a series of comical syllables, so low as to be scarcely audible from the ground below, as if he were musing aloud, and tickled with his own fancies. Then he will raise his voice again, and file away at some old saw for a while, finishing with the inimitable ‘cork-drawing’ for which his tribe is famous.
“A Raven that I had slightly wounded in the wing and captured soon became quite tame, and developed a variety of amusing traits. Proving rather obtrusive and inconvenient in my narrow quarters, I undertook to tie him in a corner with a string round his leg. This he objected to, and it was astonishing to see the perseverance he showed in untying any number of knots I might make. It was a task that sometimes took him hours, but he never rested until it was done. I had no chain light enough for the purpose, but I finally got the better of him by twisting a wire with the cord. His intelligence did not reach in that direction more than six inches from his leg.”
Mr. Dresser observed the Raven common at San Antonio, frequenting the slaughter-houses. In November, in the Baudera Hills, several came to his camp to feast on the offal of deer. Dr. Woodhouse also found them very abundant in Texas, the Indian Territory, and New Mexico, and especially so on the buffalo plains. In the Mexican Boundary Survey, Dr. Kennerly observed these birds everywhere in Northern Mexico, flocks of them following the train from point to point. They were not at all shy, but often came into camp in search of food.
Captain Blakiston, having enjoyed unusual opportunities for observing the habits of the American Raven during his residence in high northern regions, characterizes the species as anything but solitary. During the day they are usually met with in pairs, except when drawn together in large numbers around the carcass of a dead animal. At night, during the winter, they repair to some chosen resting-place, usually a clump of trees on the edge of a prairie, and there roost in one immense body. One of these roosting-places was about a mile from Fort Carlton, and Captain Blakiston’s attention was first drawn to it by noticing that about sunset all the Ravens, from all quarters, were flying towards this point. Returning to the fort in the evening by that quarter, he found a clump of aspen-trees, none of them more than twenty-five feet high, filled with Ravens, who, at his approach, took wing and flew round and round. He also noted the wonderful regularity with which they repaired to their roosting-place in the evening and left it again in the morning, by pairs, on their day’s hunt. They always left in the morning, within a minute or two of the same time, earlier and earlier as the days grew longer, on cold or cloudy mornings a little later, usually just half an hour before sunrise. In April they all paired off, and their roosting-place became deserted. During an excursion about one hundred and fifty miles southwest of Fort Carlton, Captain Blakiston found several nests of Ravens with eggs, one of which was in a small tree near a lake, and was not more than fifteen feet above it. It contained six eggs, was about a foot in diameter, composed of sticks, and was lined with buffalo-hair and pieces of scarlet cloth, evidently picked up about an Indian camping-ground.
Dr. Heermann states that while in California he always found the nests of the Raven placed high on bold precipitous cliffs, secure against danger; in the vast desolate plains of New Mexico he saw these birds building on low trees, and even on cactus-plants, less than three feet from the ground, showing how much circumstances and localities affect the habits of birds regarding incubation.
A Raven, probably this species, is abundant on the plateau of Mexico. The Cerro Colorado, near Tehuacan, is the rendezvous of a large number of these birds, where, according to Sumichrast, at the time of the flowering of the maguey, they gather in great abundance, to feed on the blossoms of this plant, which are their favorite food.
Mr. Boardman writes me that he has several times collected Ravens’ eggs at Grand Menan, but always found the nest a hard one to take, as they usually build it under some high cliff. They make a very large and bulky nest, and, where not disturbed, use it several years in succession. They also breed very early. He once took a nest with eight eggs on the 10th of April, when the snow all around was quite deep. This was sent to the Smithsonian Institution. Its contents nearly filled a bushel basket. He does not regard the Ravens as migratory. Though they are apparently more numerous in winter than in summer, this is probably because they forsake the woods and come about the open fields and the banks of rivers for dead fish, and thus are more noticed. They are very shy, sagacious, and vigilant, so much so that it is almost impossible for one to get a shot at them. Crows avoid them, and the two are never seen together. The farmers of Grand Menan accuse them of pecking the eyes out of young lambs, and always try to destroy them, and they grow less and less numerous every year. The Ravens, he adds, appear to be on good terms with the Duck Hawks, as he has known a nest of the former within a few rods of one of the latter.
An egg of this species, from Anderson River, measures 1.96 inches in length by 1.32 in breadth. Two from Grand Menan measure, one 2.05 inches by 1.30, the other 1.95 by 1.25. The ground-color of two of these is a soiled sea-green, that of the third is a light bluish-green. This is more sparingly marked with dots, blotches, and cloudings of faint purple and purplish-brown, chiefly at the larger end. The others are marked over the entire egg with blotches of varying size and depth of coloring, of a deep purple-brown; some of the markings are not readily distinguishable from black.
Corvus cryptoleucus, COUCH.
WHITE-NECKED CROW.
Corvus cryptoleucus, COUCH, Pr. A. N. Sc. VII, April, 1854, 66 (Tamaulipas, Mexico).—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 565, pl. xxii.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 284.
SP. CHAR. The fourth quill is longest; the third and fifth equal; the second longer than the sixth; the first about equal to the seventh. Glossy black, with violet reflections; feathers of neck all round, back, and breast, snow-white at the base. Length, about 21.00; wing, 14.00; tail, 8.50. Feathers of throat lanceolate; bristly feathers along the base of the bill covering it for nearly two thirds its length.
HAB. Valley of Rio Grande and Gila. Abundant on the Llano Estacado, and at Eagle Pass, Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 494). Colorado (AIKEN).
In the white bases to the feathers of the neck, etc., there is a resemblance in this species to the C. leucognaphalus of Porto Rico; but the latter has entirely different proportions, blended instead of lanceolate feathers on the throat, exceedingly short instead of unusually long nasal plumes, and many other differences, and is in every feature totally distinct.
HABITS. Of the distinctive habits or the extent of the distribution of the White-necked Raven we have very little knowledge. It was first described by Lieutenant Couch, in 1854, from specimens obtained by him at Charco Escondido, Mexico, in May, 1853. Other specimens were afterwards procured by Dr. Kennerly, at Janos, Mexico, in 1855, and by Mr. Dresser at Eagle Pass, Texas, in March, 1864. The latter gives no notes as to its habits.
Dr. Kennerly’s note in regard to it is that it was not very common, and when seen was generally associated with the larger species of Raven. Lieutenant Couch merely mentions it as found in small numbers in Eastern Tamaulipas, generally near ranches.
Mr. J. H. Clark writes that this species does not seem to possess the cunning or wariness of its congeners. It was met with, in the greatest abundance, about watering-places. It was not found habitually in great flocks, though at the head of the Limpia many were congregated and flying about the face of an immense rocky mountain wall, where they were probably nesting. Their note he describes as coarse, and less shrill than that of the common Crow. He met with the supposed nest in an arborescent cactus.
Dr. Coues does not appear to have met with this species in Arizona, but Lieutenant Bendire writes to Professor Baird from Tucson, April 12, 1872, that it is the most common Crow or Raven there. This he discovered accidentally, finding that three fourths of the Ravens he shot proved to be of this species; the others were the Colorado race of the Raven. Specimens of this Crow were obtained at Fort Buchanan by Dr. Irwin, at Pecos River by Dr. Anderson, and in the Indian Territory by Mr. McCarthy.
An egg of this species, from Trout Creek, Texas, obtained June 20 by Charles S. McCarthy, measures 1.75 inches in length by 1.25 in breadth. The ground-color is a light grayish-green, and is pretty uniformly marked with fine dottings of mingled purple and brown.
Corvus americanus, AUD.
COMMON CROW.
Corvus corone, WILSON, Am. Orn. IV, 1811, 79, pl. xxv, f. 3.—BON. Obs. Wils. 1824, No. 37.—IB. Syn. 1828, 56.—RICH. F. B. Am. II, 1831, 291.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 209 (not Corvus corone of LINN.). CORVUS AMERICANUS, AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 317; V, 477, pl. clvi.—IB. Syn. 1839, 150.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 87, pl. ccxxv.—BON. List, 1838.—IB. Consp. 1850, 385.—NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 1840, 221.—MAXIM. Reise, I, 1839, 140.—NEWBERRY, Zoöl. Cal. & Or. Route, P. R. R. Rep. VI, IV, 1857, 82.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 566, pl. xxiii.—MAX. Caban. J. VI, 1858, 198.—SCHLEGEL, Notice sur les Corbeaux, 10, pl. i, f. 16.—COUES, P. A. N. S. 1861, 226.—SAMUELS, 357.—ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 297 (in part).
SP. CHAR. Fourth quill longest; second shorter than sixth; first shorter than ninth. Glossy black with violet reflections, even on the belly. Length, 19.00 to 20.00; wing, 13.00 to 13.50; tail about 8.00. Tarsus longer than the middle toe and claw.
HAB. United States, from Atlantic to Pacific; rare in the Middle Province and on Missouri Plains, and on northwest coast. N. E. Texas (DRESSER, Ibis, 1865, 494). North to Great Slave Lake, Fort Rae, and Nelson River, H. B. T.
The C. americanus has no analogue in Europe, though the C. corone somewhat resembles it. The most important feature of distinction appears to lie in the structure of the feathers of the head and neck, which in C. corone are narrow, with the tips distinct, while in the American bird these tips are blended together and do not maintain their individuality. The feathers on the fore-neck in corone are also lanceolate and distinct, showing the outline of each one as in the Raven, while in the American Crow they are three times as broad, rounded, and entirely blended. Mr. Audubon further remarks that the neck of the European bird is glossed with green and blue, while that of the American has a decided purplish-brown tinge.
Prince Maximilian states, in addition, that the note differs in the two species.
HABITS. The Common Crow of North America is found in great abundance in all the Eastern States, from Texas to Florida, and from the Missouri to Nova Scotia. A few are found beyond the Great Plains, and they also extend their migrations, in summer, into high Arctic regions. Richardson found them as far north as the 55th parallel, but was in error when he stated that beyond this they do not go. He adds that none approach within five or six hundred miles of Hudson’s Bay. They were observed at Cross Lake and at Lake Winnepeg by Mr. Kennicott, at Big Island by Mr. Reid, at Fort Rae by Mr. Clarke, and at Fort Anderson and on the Lower Anderson River by Mr. MacFarlane, who also found them breeding even at this high latitude. They were not seen in Russian America, and Dr. Cooper thinks that the species does not occur in California, or, if at all, only rarely, but that it is there replaced by C. caurinus.
Mr. Ridgway found the Crow of very rare occurrence in the interior. A very few were seen in the Truckee meadows, in November, and others at the Humboldt marshes, in October. These western birds were exceedingly unsuspicious and familiar, so much so that those seen in the Humboldt marshes were walking about with all the familiarity of domestic pigeons, only hopping aside as they were approached. None were seen either in spring or summer.
In Western Iowa Mr. Allen states that he saw but very few of this species, and even in Northern Illinois it was not very common. At the West this bird is reported to be held in better estimation than at the East, by the farmers. It is not known to pull corn, and seems to be entirely unsuspicious. It is regarded generally as a benefactor, and not only deserves, but receives, good treatment. In Indiana he found it more common.
Dr. Coues met with a single individual on the Labrador coast. In Nova Scotia it is much more abundant, and there, as on the Western prairies, being unmolested by the inhabitants, it is exceedingly unsuspicious, and will permit a very near approach before it will fly, and even then will not move to a distance. In all of the United States east of the Mississippi it is very abundant. In Texas, between San Antonio and the Mexican frontier, it is not common; but Mr. Dresser found it very common in the northeast part of the State during the whole year.
Probably no one of our birds, so wholly worthless for food, has been more hunted and destroyed than this species. In certain parts of the country it is held in great aversion by the farmers, and in some States bounty-laws have been enacted by legislatures to promote its destruction. Had not these birds been possessed of an extraordinary intelligence, they must long since have been exterminated or driven from a large part of the country. In some sections their numbers have been of late much diminished by the use of strychnine. During the month of May the Crow is very destructive in the cornfield, pulling up the grains as soon as they begin to vegetate, and compelling the farmer to replant perhaps several times. Wilson remarks that in the State of Delaware these birds collect in immense flocks and commit great devastation upon crops of standing corn. They also occasionally commit depredations in the barn-yard, robbing hens’-nests of their eggs, and even destroying young chickens. They also destroy the eggs and young of other birds. The mischief they thus do is doubtless very great, and the ground for the prevalent prejudice against them is quite apparent. Yet it is equally demonstrable that this bird is surpassed, and probably is equalled, by no other in the vast amount of the benefits conferred upon agriculturalists. The evil it perpetrates is very limited, and is confined to but a short period, but during all the time it is resident the Crow is constantly engaged in the destruction of injurious insects and rodent quadrupeds. In the early spring it feeds almost wholly upon the most destructive grubs, and in extensive districts of Massachusetts, where these birds have been largely destroyed, the ravages of the May-bugs and the grasshoppers in pasture-lands have been a natural consequence of so short-sighted a policy.
The persecutions to which the Crow is subjected have developed in them a wariness and a distrust that is foreign to their nature. They can only live by keeping on a constant lookout for dangers, and by learning to distinguish the weapons that threaten their destruction. As soon as anything is seen that causes alarm, the signal is at once given, and the warning passed from one to another.
In New Jersey and in Pennsylvania, during the winter months, the Crows assemble in immense flocks, and their movements appear to be regulated by the guidance of a few chosen leaders. I received from the lips of the late John Cassin, an ornithologist hardly less remarkable for his outdoor observations than for his researches in the closet, only a few days before his death, a very surprising account of the movements of a large army of Crows, witnessed by himself, in the spring of 1868.
On a Sunday morning in April, when Philadelphia was enveloped in a fog so dense and impenetrable that it was hardly possible to distinguish objects across its streets, Mr. Cassin’s attention was called to an immense accumulation of these birds in Independence Square. The whole park he found, to his utter astonishment, occupied by an immense army of Crows. They filled all the trees, bending down the overloaded branches, and swarmed over and covered the ground. The entire space seemed alive with Crows. They had evidently become bewildered in the fog, and had strangely taken refuge in this small park in the very heart of Philadelphia. As if aware of their close proximity to danger, the whole assembly was quiet, orderly, and silent. A few birds, evidently acting as leaders, moved noiselessly back and forth through their ranks, as if giving tacit signals. These movements were followed by the departure of a few scouts, as if sent to make explorations, but they soon returned unsuccessful. Again were repeated the uneasy movements of their leaders, passing slowly and cautiously through their close ranks. After an apparently much longer consultation, another small party ascended to explore, wheeling round and round in wider and wider zones. At length, satisfied with their observations, they quietly returned, and made their report in a manner evidently understood, though not audibly expressed; for immediately the leaders passed again among the crowd, and, as if signals were given for a general movement, the whole of this immense congregation, numbering, Mr. Cassin estimated, hundreds of thousands, rose slowly and silently, preceded by their scouts, and, moving off in a westerly direction, were soon lost to view.
When taken young, the Crow can be easily domesticated, and becomes a very entertaining, but a very mischievous pet. It is very secretive, hiding objects of no value to itself, and seems to delight in mischief. It displays often a wonderful intelligence, appears to understand and to obey certain directions, and manifests also remarkable quickness of vision. A tame Crow belonging to a family resident near Boston, and permitted to go at large, manifested all the attachment of a dog. It especially enjoyed the society of the children, and played with them in their games of hide and seek, surpassing them by its readiness in finding the secreted object. It was especially attached to the mistress of the house, flying to her whenever she approached, hovering over her head, and alighting on her shoulder.
In a few instances the Crow has been taught to imitate articulate sounds. In one of these, in Grafton, Mass., the Crow not only vociferated a single monosyllable repeatedly, but at other times enunciated a short sentence of five syllables.
A few are resident in Massachusetts during the year, but the greater portion move south in November and return in March. Those who remain during the winter are chiefly resident near the sea-shore. The Crow breeds from April to June, varying with the latitude of its residence. In Massachusetts it has full-grown young by June 1. It builds, usually in March, a large rudely constructed nest of sticks, moss, and bark, lined with finer mosses, and sometimes with hair. The parent birds are very watchful and vigilant if their nest is in danger, and often expose their lives in their anxiety for their young. The male bird is attentive to his mate during incubation, and assists in feeding the young. The young are fed chiefly on insects, frogs, mice, and similar food.
The eggs of the Crow vary from 1.60 to 1.55 inches in length, and from 1.20 to 1.10 in breadth. In their markings they exhibit surprising variations. They usually have a ground of a light sea-green, over which are scattered, more or less thickly, blotches, some of them quite large, of a dark-brown, almost black, with purplish reflections. These are chiefly about the larger end. Another quite common variety is of a deeper ground of green, very uniformly and thickly sprinkled with fine dottings of a sepia-brown. Others have a ground nearly white, slightly tinged with green, more sparingly spotted with small blotches of light purplish-brown. A nest found near Springfield contained eggs having the ground-color on one side a pinkish-gray, the rest being greenish-white, all spotted with brown. Another set of eggs from Hudson, Mass., were of a light bluish-green, entirely unspotted, resembling large Robin’s eggs; and Dr. Wood mentions another four, the ground of which was flesh-color, and the spots red.
Corvus americanus, var. floridanus, BAIRD.
FLORIDA CROW.
Corvus americanus, var. floridanus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 568, pl. lxvii, f. 1. C. americanus, ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 297.
SP. CHAR. About the size of C. americanus, but bill and feet larger. Tail less rounded. Third, fourth, and fifth quills nearly equal; third rather longer than fifth. Color less violet above. Length, 19.50; wing, 12.00; tail, 7.70; tarsus, 2.60.
HAB. Southern peninsula of Florida.
This resident Crow of Florida differs in some marked features from that of the more northern localities in several characters. Although perhaps rather smaller, the bill and feet, especially the latter, are very considerably larger. The nasal feathers extend over the basal two fifths of the bill, instead of the half. The proportions of the bill are about the same; in the Florida bird it is rather the longer. The greatest difference is in the feet. The tarsal joint of the tibia is bare, the feathers scarcely coming below it, even anteriorly, instead of projecting some distance. The tarsus is almost a quarter of an inch longer, covered anteriorly by nine scutellæ, instead of eight. The outer lateral toe is shorter, not reaching the base of the middle claw. The middle toe and claw are considerably shorter than the tarsus; the middle claw is shorter than in the northern bird.
The wing-formula differs somewhat; the third, fourth, and fifth quills are nearly equal, the third even longer than the fifth, instead of shorter. The tail is short and very nearly even, the difference in length of feathers being less than half an inch, instead of an inch. This, however, may in part be owing to the absence of the middle pair.
The colors differ somewhat from those of the common Crow. There is less violet, and the feathers of the back have almost a brassy gloss on their margins, as in Crotophaga.
The specimen upon which these remarks are based, though apparently perfectly mature, is changing some of its feathers, such as the inner primaries, the middle tail-feathers, and the greater coverts. The long primaries and ten tail-feathers, however, are of full length. It is possible that the bird is really as large as the northern Crow, although this is hardly probable. It was killed on the mainland of the extreme southern portion of Florida, not far from Fort Dallas.
No comparison of this bird is required with the Fish Crow, which has the middle toe and claw longer than the tarsus, not shorter, and the proportions much less.
HABITS. The common resident Crow of Florida exhibits so many peculiarities differing from the northern species, that Professor Baird, in his Birds of America, deemed it worthy of mention at least as a race, if not a distinct species. We have no account of its habits, and do not know if, in any respects, they differ from those of the common Crow. Dr. J. C. Cooper, in his brief manuscript notes on the birds of Florida, made in the spring of 1859, speaks of the Florida Crow as very common, as being quite maritime in its habits, and as having full-fledged young on the 20th of April. Three eggs of this race, obtained in Florida in the spring of 1871, by Mr. Maynard, differ not more from those of the Crow than do those of the latter occasionally from one another. They measure 1.73 by 1.20 inches; 1.70 by 1.20; and 1.54 by 1.25. Their ground-color is a bright bluish-green, and they are all more or less marked, over the entire egg, with blotches of a mingled bronze and brown with violet shadings. The latter tints are more marked in one egg than in the others, and in this the spots are fewer and more at one end, the larger end being nearly free from markings. Their average capacity, as compared with the average of the C. americanus, is as 5.1 to 4.2.
Corvus caurinus, BAIRD.
NORTHWESTERN FISH CROW.
Corvus caurinus, BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 569, pl. xxiv.—COOPER & SUCKLEY, 211, pl. xxiv.—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chic. Ac. I, 1869, 286 (Alaska).—FINSCH, Abh. Nat. III, 1872, 41 (Alaska).—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 285.
SP. CHAR. Fourth quill longest; fifth and third about equal; second longer than sixth; first shorter than ninth. Color black, glossed with purple. Tail nearly even. Tarsus longer than middle toe and claw. Length about 16.50; wing about 11.00; tail about 7.00.
HAB. Northwestern coast, from Columbia River to Sitka.
This species is readily distinguished from the eastern Fish Crow by the larger size; the absence of green gloss on the belly; the tarsi longer than the middle toe and claw, instead of shorter; and the second quill being generally shorter than the sixth instead of longer, and considerably shorter than the culmen, instead of longer.
It is rather to be compared with C. americanus, with which it agrees in colors, but from which it differs, essentially, in having the wing and tail very much shorter, while the bill is considerably longer, and in having the tarsus shorter than the culmen, instead of longer, as in all the other North American species. In this last respect it agrees with C. mexicanus (see synopsis, p. 829) of Western Mexico; in this, however, the color and proportions are entirely different.
HABITS. This species appears to be confined to the seaboard of the Pacific, from Alaska to California inclusive. Smaller than the common Crow, in its more essential features it closely resembles that bird, while in all its habits it appears the exact counterpart of the Fish Crow, from which it is specifically and essentially distinct.
It is found as far north as Sitka, several specimens having been procured at that point by Mr. Bischoff.
In the opinion of Dr. Suckley, the marked differences in the habits of this species from those of the common Crow, even more than the great difference in size, sufficiently mark them as entirely distinct. The western Fish Crow is never wary or suspicious, like the common species, but in its impudent familiarity with man resembles the English Jackdaw, and hardly learns to be shy even after having been annoyed with the gun. In Oregon and Washington Territory, he states, this Crow is very abundant, and is one of the marked ornithological features of the country. The great abundance of fish, especially of salmon, in both of these divisions, amply supplies this species with food. At Puget Sound it is abundant throughout the year. During the winter it subsists principally upon the refuse food and offal thrown out by the natives from their lodges. He describes it as cunning, but very tame and impudent, allowing a very near approach, and retiring but a short distance when pursued. Like the Raven and the Herring Gull, these birds are in the habit of carrying clams high into the air and then dropping them, in order to break the shell. Dr. Suckley observed one fruitlessly trying to break the shell of a clam by letting it drop on soft ground. In this effort he persisted perseveringly as long as he was watched.
Dr. Suckley found a nest of this species at Fort Dalles. It was situated in a dense willow-thicket, near a lagoon on the Columbia, and contained three eggs. He describes them as about an inch and a half long, and very wide in their short diameter, of a dirty green ground with brown spots.
Dr. Cooper speaks of it as much more gregarious and familiar than the common Crow, but otherwise resembling that bird in habits, being very sagacious, feeding upon almost everything animal and vegetable, differing rather in the tone than in the character of its cries. Its chief dependence for food being on the sea, it is generally found along the beach, devouring dead fish and other objects thrown up by the waves. At high tide the birds leave the shore and resort to dwellings near the sea, where they devour the offal and any refuse, vegetable or animal. As soon as the tide changes they are sure to notice it and to return to their favorite feeding-ground. They are very troublesome to the Indians, stealing their fish exposed for drying, and other articles of food. From some superstitious awe of them the Indians never molest these birds, but set their children to watch and drive them away. They build in trees near the shore, and the young are fledged in May.
In the southern half of California, Dr. Cooper states, these birds are rarely seen near the sea, preferring inland districts, and only occasionally coming to the shores of the bays to feed. During most of the year they associate in large flocks, feeding in company, and are gregarious even in the breeding-season, building in close proximity to one another. Frequently several nests may be found on the same tree. In this respect they are very unlike the eastern species, which never permit another pair near their nest.
These birds were found by Dr. Cooper breeding as far south as San Diego, where they selected for their breeding-places the groves of evergreen oaks growing in ravines. Their nests were from twelve to forty feet from the ground. In the north they generally build in spruces. He describes their nests as strongly built of sticks, coarse on the outside, but finer on the inside, where they are mingled with roots, grasses, moss, horse-hair, etc., to form a soft lining. The eggs, four in number, have a ground-color of a dark shade of green, thickly marked with dark brown and olive. He gives their average measurement as 1.60 by 1.10 inches. At San Diego they are laid about April 15.
Where unmolested, these birds have not yet become so shy as in the older districts, but they soon learn to apprehend the danger of a gun, and to evince the cunning characteristics of their tribe. They have not, as yet, manifested any disposition to disturb the growing crops, and the small depredations they commit are far more than counterbalanced by their destruction of immense numbers of grubs, grasshoppers, and other injurious insects. They obtain a large supply of food around the cattle-ranches.
In northern California they feed largely on fish, and on the Columbia on clams and oysters.
For reasons not well understood, they avoid particular districts during the breeding-season. Dr. Cooper has never noticed one, during this season, on the coast south of Santa Clara, has never seen one in the Colorado Valley, nor in the Sierra Nevada.
At Visalia, where an extensive forest of oaks forms an oasis in the great Tulare plain, he met with large flocks of these birds, with the same gregarious habits as were observed on the coast.
During the month of July, 1866, a large number of these Crows came every evening to roost in an alder-grove near the town of Santa Cruz. They gathered in long, continuous flocks from the neighboring fields, flying rather high. All at once they would descend, with zigzag turns, to the low trees, sportively chasing and pecking at one another, and chattering in the air.
Mr. John K. Lord, who enjoyed an unusually good opportunity of comparing the habits of our common Crow with those of this species, has not the slightest doubt as to their distinctness, though so very like in all essential respects, as far as color, form of bill, and other details are concerned. The smaller size of this bird, the difference in voice, and their habit of building with mud a domed nest, sufficiently demonstrate their difference. This Crow he found principally near the sea-coast; retiring to the trees at high tide, following out its ebb and retreating before its flood, they feed on any marine food they can find. The caw of this species reminded him of the Jackdaws of Europe. During the breeding-season they abandoned the coast, from early May resorting by pairs to the interior. Selecting patches of open prairie, they build their nests in the bushes of the crab-apple or wild thorn, and something in the manner of the Magpie, arching over the top with sticks, with two openings for entrance and exit on either side. The inside is plastered with mud, and lined with a few loose grass-stalks. The eggs he found generally small, and of a lighter color than those of the common Crow. After nesting, they return with their young to the sea-coast, and remain in large flocks. During the breeding-season they feed on small reptiles, freshwater mollusks, insects, grubs, etc. Mr. Lord noticed them capturing butterflies flying near their nests. Their eggs range in number from five to seven.
An egg of this species from Sitka measures 1.62 inches in length by 1.12 in breadth. It is of an oblong-oval shape, pointed at one end. The ground-color is a light sea-green, with marks and blotches of olive-brown, of varying size and different shades.
Corvus ossifragus, WILSON.
FISH CROW.
Corvus ossifragus, WILSON, Am. Orn. V, 1812, 27, pl. xxxvii, f. 2.—BON. Obs. Wils. 1825, No. 39.—IB. Syn. 1828, 57.—IB. Conspectus, 1850, 385.—WAGLER, Syst. Avium, 1827, Corvus, No. 12.—NUTTALL, Man. I, 1832, 216.—AUD. Orn. Biog. II, 1834, 268; V, 479, pl. cxlvi.—IB. Syn. 1839, 151.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 94, pl. ccxxvi.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 571, pl. lxvii, f. 2.—SAMUELS, 363.—ALLEN, B. E. Fla. 297.
SP. CHAR. Fourth quill longest; second rather longer than seventh; first shorter than the ninth. Glossy black, with green and violet reflections; the gloss of the belly greenish. Length, about 15.50; wing, 10.50; tail, less than 7.00; tarsus shorter than the middle toe and claw.
HAB. Atlantic coast, from New Jersey to Florida.
The Fish Crow of the Atlantic States is readily distinguishable from the common Crow by the much smaller size (16 inches instead of 20; wing, about 11 inches instead of 13); the bill is broader at the base and tapers more rapidly to the end; the middle toe and claw are longer than the scutellate portion of the tarsus, not shorter, the inner claw not reaching to the base of the middle one. The tail is less rounded. The gloss on the belly is green instead of violet; that on the back is mixed with green, not entirely violet.
HABITS. The Fish Crow of Eastern North America has a distribution restricted to the Southern Atlantic and the Gulf shore. It is found in the States of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida, and, according to Audubon, thence to the mouth of the Mississippi. West of that river it appears to be very rarely met with. Dr. Würdemann obtained it at Calcasieu, La. Mr. Allen, in a list of the birds of Massachusetts, published in 1864, names this species as an occasional visitor along the southern coast of that State, but I am not able to find any corroboration of the statement, and believe it to be a mistake. Dr. De Kay, in his Report on the birds of New York, states that this Crow is occasionally seen on the shores of Long Island, but Mr. Lawrence is confident that it never occurs farther north than Squaw Beach, in New Jersey. So, too, Mr. Townsend is quoted by both Audubon and Nuttall as authority for its occurrence on the Columbia River, of which we have no confirmation.
This species was first described by Wilson, who met with it and observed its habits on the sea-coast of Georgia. In some respects its habits were the exact reverse of those of the common Crow, as the former regularly retired at evening into the interior to roost, and came down to the shores of the river Savannah, on the first appearance of day, to feed. Its voice first attracted his notice; there was something in it very different from the utterances of the Crow, being more hoarse and guttural, and more varied in its modulations. The mode of flight was also observed to be quite different, as the Fish Crow occasionally soars about in the manner of the Raven and of Hawks, without flapping its wings,—a flight which the Crow is never observed to make, and is probably not able to execute.
The food was also observed to be unlike, as well as the manner of procuring it. The favorite haunt of this species seemed to be the banks of the river, up and down which they soared, and in a very dexterous manner snatched up with their claws dead fish, or other garbage found floating on the surface. This Crow was also seen to perch frequently on the back of cattle, in the manner of the Jackdaw of Europe. It was never seen to mingle with the common Crows; and never, like the latter, roosts among the reeds and marshes near the water, but always seeks the shelter of the woods, in which to pass the night.
Afterwards, in his journey near the Mississippi, Wilson observed the same birds frequenting the borders of rivers and ponds, and feeding on the reptiles found in those waters. They were close attendants upon the cow-yards, and were more solitary, but much less shy and suspicious, than the common Crow. This species was also observed by Wilson in Cape May County, New Jersey, and in the regions bordering on the Schuylkill and the Delaware, near Philadelphia, during the shad and herring fishing, or from March till June.
During the breeding-season they were observed to separate into pairs, and to build their nests in tall trees near the sea or the river shore. One of their nests was in a tall wood at Great Egg Harbor, and they were presumed to have four or five young at a time.
In the District of Columbia, Dr. Coues found the Fish Crow to be an abundant resident throughout the year, less wary and suspicious than the common Crow, and more confined to the borders of rivers. It was generally confounded with C. americanus.
The Fish Crow appears to have received, even if it does not merit, an exemption from the general unpopularity of its race. It is generally believed to be at least a harmless species, and in its destruction of reptiles and vermin to be even beneficial. This belief, we apprehend, is for the most part well founded. Yet Mr. Audubon accuses these Crows of entering gardens and feeding upon the best fruits. He also states that, near Charleston, they commit such depredations upon the ripe figs, and become so troublesome generally in the gardens, that it is often found necessary to station a man near the fig-trees to shoot and destroy them.
The Fish Crow is confined either to the maritime districts or to the banks of rivers branching from them. Audubon states that they ascend the Delaware to quite a distance, and that some breed in New Jersey every year, but that all retire to the South on the approach of cold weather. Some go up the Mississippi to the distance of five hundred miles, but return to the seashore in the winter. In East Florida, where they were very abundant, Mr. Audubon found them breeding in February, in South Carolina on the 20th of March, and in New Jersey a month later. On the St. John’s River, during February, he saw them in flocks of several hundred, but all seemed mated and to move in pairs, sailing high in the air in the manner of Ravens. After these aerial excursions the whole body descended to the water’s edge to feed. When their fishing was over, they would alight in flocks on the live-oaks near the shore, and there keep up their gabbling, while they plumed themselves, for hours. They then returned to their fishing-grounds, where they remained until near sunset, moving into the interior to great distances, to roost on the loblolly-pines. These retreats were made in silence, but their return to the sea-shore in the early morning was made with noisy and lively demonstrations. They were then to be seen among the bays, rivers, salt ponds, and marshes, searching for small fry, and picking up any garbage they might find.
Mr. Audubon also accuses them of robbing other birds of their eggs and young. This was especially observed on the Florida Keys, where they even dared to plunder the nests of the Cormorants and White Ibis. They feed largely on the small crabs called fiddlers, which they pursue and easily capture in their burrows. He has also seen them attack and pursue small Gulls and Terns, and attempt to make them disgorge the fish they have caught; but as the flight of the latter is swifter, they are frequently unsuccessful in these attempts at robbery. This Crow can catch living fish with considerable dexterity, but cannot feed while on the wing.
During the winter and early spring, Mr. Audubon states that these birds feed on various kinds of berries, especially those of the Ilex cassina and of the common holly, and those of the exotic tallow-tree, now so common near Charleston (Stillingia sebifera). In January and February these trees are much resorted to by the Crows, who greedily devour their white and oily seeds.
Mr. Audubon found these birds breeding generally on moderate-sized trees of the loblolly-pine, building their nests towards the extremities of the branches, about twenty feet from the ground. The nests are smaller than those of the Crow, and are built of sticks, lined with dry grasses and moss, and neatly finished with fine fibrous roots. The eggs are five or six in number, and resemble those of the Crow, but are smaller.
Two eggs of this species, from St. Simon’s Island, measure, one 1.50 in length by 1.10 in breadth, the other 1.52 by 1.09. Their ground-color is a light blue with a slight greenish tinge, marked over the entire egg with small blotches of a light brown. An egg from Great Egg Harbor, obtained by Wilson, from the old Peale Museum, and which may be a faded specimen, has no tinge of blue or green, but a ground of pinkish-gray, marked with smaller blotches and cloudings of dark drab. It measures 1.46 inches in length by one inch in breadth.
GENUS PICICORVUS, BONAP.
Picicorvus, BONAPARTE, Consp. Av. 1850, 384. (Type, Corvus columbianus, WILS.)
GEN. CHAR. Leaden-gray color, with black wings and tail. Bill longer than the head, considerably longer than the tarsus, attenuated, slightly decurved; tip without notch. Culmen and commissure curved; gonys straight or slightly concave, as long as the tarsi. Nostrils circular, completely covered by a full tuft of incumbent white bristly feathers. Tail much shorter than the wings, nearly even or slightly rounded. Wings pointed, reaching to the tip of tail. Third, fourth, and fifth quills longest. Tarsi short, scarcely longer than the middle toe, the hind toe and claw very large, reaching nearly to the middle of the middle claw, the lateral toe little shorter. A row of small scales on the middle of the sides of tarsus. Color of the single species leaden-gray, with black wings and tail.
[Line drawing: Picicorvus columbianus. 4461]
[Line drawing: Nucifraga caryocatactes. 9673]
This genus is so similar to Nucifraga as to be hardly separable; the principal difference being in the slender and more decurved and attenuated bill, with a slightly concave, instead of convex, culmen, and plain instead of spotted plumage. The differences of form are expressed by the accompanying outlines of the generic features of the two. But one species is known, this being peculiar to Western North America.
Picicorvus columbianus, BONAP.
CLARKE’S CROW.
Corvus columbianus, WILSON, Am. Orn. III, 1811, 29, pl. xx.—BON. Obs. Wilson, 1824, No. 38.—IB. Syn. 1828, 57.—NUTTALL, I, 1832, 218. Nucifraga columbiana, AUD. Orn. Biog. IV, 1838, 459, pl. ccclxii.—IB. Syn. 1839, 156.—IB. Birds Am. IV, 1842, 127, pl. ccxxxv.—BON. List, 1838.—NUTTALL, Man. I, (2d ed.,) 251. Picicorvus columbianus, BONAP. Consp. 1850, 384.—NEWBERRY, P. R. R. Rep. VI, IV, 1837, 83.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 573.—LORD, Pr. R. A. Inst. IV, 121 (British Columbia).—DALL & BANNISTER, Tr. Chic. Ac. I, 1869, 286.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 289. “Corvus megonyx, WAGLER.”
SP. CHAR. Tail rounded or moderately graduated, the closed wings reaching nearly to its tip. Fourth quill longest; second considerably shorter than the sixth. General color bluish-ash, changing on the nasal feathers, the forehead, sides of head (especially around the eye), and chin, to white. The wings, including their inner surface, greenish-black, the secondaries and tertials, except the innermost, broadly tipped with white; tail white, the inner web of the fifth feather and the whole of the sixth, with the upper tail-coverts, greenish-black. The axillars plumbeous-black. Bill and feet black. Young similar in color, without additional markings of any kind. The gonys, however, convex, and the bill generally more like that of the Jays. Length of male (fresh), 12.00; wing, 7.00; tail, 4.30; tarsus, 1.20.
HAB. From Rocky Mountains to Pacific. East to Fort Kearney, north to Sitka, south to Arizona.
HABITS. Clarke’s Crow was first met with by the parties composing the celebrated exploring party to the Rocky Mountains under the direction of Lewis and Clarke. It was described by Wilson in 1811, who was informed by individuals belonging to the expedition that these birds were found inhabiting the shores of the Columbia and the adjacent country in great numbers, frequenting the rivers and sea-shore, and that it seemed to have all the noisy and gregarious habits of the common Crow of Europe.
In his account of this species, Mr. Nuttall states that during his journey westward in the month of July, he first observed individuals of this bird in a small grove of pines on the borders of Bear River, near where it falls into Lake Timpanagos. This was at a height of about seven thousand feet above the sea level, and in the 42d parallel. Their habits appeared to him to correspond with those of the Nutcrackers of Europe.
He afterwards saw a considerable flock of the young birds early in August, in a lofty ravine near the Three Buttes, a remarkable isolated mountain group about forty miles west of the Lewis River. They appeared somewhat shy, and were scattered through a grove of aspens, flying, with a slight chatter, from the tops of bushes and trees, to the ground. He was of the opinion that this species never descends below the mountain plains, but that it has a constant predilection for the pine forests.
Mr. Townsend afterwards found this species abundant on the Blue Mountains of Oregon. He describes its flight as very unlike that of a Crow, being performed in jerks, in the manner of a Woodpecker. At times, when sitting, it is said to keep up a constant scream, in a very harsh and grating voice, and in an unvaried and prolonged tone. He states that it breeds in very high pine-trees, and that he did not meet with it within five hundred miles of the Columbia River.
Mr. Ridgway found this species one of the most abundant birds of the pine forests of the Sierra Nevada. East of this range it was also met with, though only in smaller numbers, in the cedar and piñon woods of the East Humboldt Mountains. He adds that it is a bird so curiously striking as at once to attract attention. It bears but very little resemblance to any bird of its family, and in its general appearance, flight, and notes approaches so nearly to the Woodpeckers as to be usually known to the settlers as a bird of that tribe.
He further remarks that its flight much resembles that of Melanerpes torquatus, and, as it alights from the top of a tall dead tree, and sits quietly gazing around, it might readily be mistaken for one of the Picidæ. He describes them as being very active in their movements, now flying from a tree to the ground to pick up some article of food, now examining the excavations of an old dead stump or snag, or, on being approached, as flying up and alighting upon the extreme summit of a tree, out of gunshot. It is a very noisy bird, and its notes are harsh and discordant, though less so than are those of the Steller’s Jay, which is generally seen in the same localities. Its usual note is a harsh guttural churr-churr, generally uttered when two or more alight on the same tree. Occasionally an individual takes up a peculiar piping strain, which is immediately answered by all the others in the neighborhood, thus awakening the echoes of the surrounding solitude with their discordant cries. In regard to its nest he can give no positive information, but thinks that they breed in cavities in old dead trees and stumps, having found a nest in such a situation in the East Humboldt Mountains, which he thinks belonged to a pair of these birds which were flying about, and seen to enter this cavity.
Dr. Newberry, in his Report on the zoölogy of his route, states that he found this species rather common along a large portion of it, and was thus enabled to study its habits at leisure. He found it strictly confined to the highlands and mountains, never, where he saw it, descending to a lower altitude than about four thousand feet. On the other hand, while crossing the Cascade Mountains at the line of perpetual snow, seven thousand feet above the sea-level, he has seen this bird, in company with the Melanerpes torquatus, flying over the snow-covered peaks three thousand feet above him.
He first met with this bird on the spur of the Sierra Nevada, near Lassen’s Butte, and found it constantly, when in high and timbered regions, from there to the Columbia. He describes its habits as a compound, in about equal parts of those of the Jays and of the Woodpeckers. Its cry he speaks of as particularly harsh and disagreeable, something like that of Steller’s Jay, but louder and more discordant. It seems to combine the shrewdness with all the curiosity of the Jays and Crows, and from its shyness is a very difficult bird to shoot, the Doctor never being able to get directly within killing distance of one of them, but only obtaining specimens by concealing himself and waiting for them to approach him. Apparently from excess of caution, it almost invariably alights on a dry tree. Even when going to a living tree for its food, it always flies first into a dry one, if one is near, to reconnoitre, and, if the coast is clear, it begins to feed. At the first movement of an intruder, without uttering a note, it puts a safe distance between itself and its enemy.
The food of this bird, at the time when Dr. Newberry visited its haunts, consisted exclusively of the seeds of the yellow pine (P. ponderosa), in dislodging which from the cones the bird displays great dexterity. Both Maximilian’s Jay and Steller’s Jay were, at that time, feeding on the same seeds, but not so exclusively.
Dr. Suckley obtained a specimen of this bird as far east as Milk River, in Nebraska, about two hundred miles east of the Rocky Mountains.
In crossing the Cascade Mountains, in 1853, Dr. Cooper found these birds quite abundant on the banks of the Yakima River, and from thence north wherever there were trees of the long-leaved pine, the seeds of which were its principal food. On returning to Vancouver during the severe cold weather of the following January, these birds appeared there in considerable numbers. At no other season of the year has he met with them west of the Cascade Mountains, and believes these migrations westward are only made in the severest weather. They extend eastward throughout Washington Territory, as Dr. Cooper has shot them at Fort Laramie, and met with a straggling pair even as far east as Fort Kearney. Dr. Cooper has never known these birds to eat anything except seeds and berries. They rarely descend to the ground, and never frequent river-banks, or other places, for fish or carrion. They may be seen on the tops of trees extracting seeds from cones, hanging head downwards, like a Chickadee. Dr. Cooper has observed this bird pecking at dead bark, in quest of insects. When feeding they are very shy, flying off, if approached, to a great distance before alighting. They are not known to visit the Coast Mountains south of San Francisco, but abound in the Rocky Mountains throughout our limits.
Mr. J. K. Lord notes the arrival of this species at Fort Colville, in May, in large flocks. They were hopping busily from branch to branch, amidst pine-trees.
The statement made to Wilson that this species frequents rivers and seashores, and his inference that its formidable claws indicated that they feed on living animals, is controverted by Mr. Lord. They never frequent river-banks, never by any chance eat fish, and never capture any living thing. Their habits are strictly arboreal, and their food the seeds of pine-trees. These noisy seed-hunters use their formidable claws to enable them to hang on to the pine cones while they are extracting the seed, which they are obliged to get out from under scaly coverings. For this nature has given them feet and claws that serve the purpose of hands, and a powerful bill, like a small crowbar. The cone must be steadied when they pry it open, or it would snap and fall. One foot clasps it, and the powerful claws hold it firmly. The other foot, encircling a branch, supports the bird in every possible position, the long grasping claws being equal to any emergency. The cone is thus fixed, and the seeds are forced out from under the scales. Mr. Lord collected a large packet of seeds of the Abies douglassi from the crops of these birds.
On their arrival they assemble in immense flocks, and the noise they make he describes as a most discordant, continuous, grating clatter, intensified at times into a perfect shriek. These assemblies last about a week, after which they separate in pairs.
A nest of this bird was found by Mr. Lord in the top of a lofty pine at least two hundred feet high,—felled in cutting the boundary line. By chance he discovered the nest, about which the old birds were hovering, leaving no doubt of its identity. This nest was very large and composed of fir twigs, bits of bark, the leaves of the pine, fine root-fibres, with small pieces of moss, and gray lichens mixed carelessly with the other materials. It was shallow and round, and presented a large extent of surface beyond the margins of the hollow containing the eggs. The eggs were in fragments, much like the eggs of Steller’s Jay in color, but of a lighter shade of bluish-green. He thinks that their habit is to build in the very tallest pines.
Dr. Kennerly also met with this Crow west of Albuquerque, in New Mexico, in the thick pine woods skirting the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, where it was quite abundant. He rarely saw more than two or three together. None were met with after leaving the mountains.
A single specimen of this crow was obtained at Sitka, by Bischoff.
GENUS GYMNOKITTA, PR. MAX.
Gymnorhinus, PR. MAX. Reise Nord. Amer. II, 1841, 21. (Type, _G. cyanocephala_.) Gymnokitta, PR. MAX. “1850,” GRAY. Cyanocephalus, BONAP. “1842,” preoccupied in Botany.
[Line drawing: Gymnokitta cyanocephala. 16247]
GEN. CHAR. Bill elongated, depressed, shorter than the tarsus, longer than the head, without notch, similar to that of Sturnella in shape. Culmen nearly straight; commissure curved; gonys ascending. Nostrils small, oval, entirely exposed, the bristly feathers at the base of the bill being very minute. Tail short, nearly even, much shorter than the pointed wings, which cover three fourths of the tail. Tarsi considerably longer than the middle toe. Color of the single species blue, most intense anteriorly; the throat streaked with white.
The bill in this genus is not unlike that of Sturnus and Sturnella, and conspicuous among Corvinæ by its uncovered nostrils.
Gymnokitta cyanocephala, PR. MAX.
MAXIMILIAN’S JAY.
Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, PR. MAXIMILIAN, Reise in das innere Nord-Amerika, II, 1841, 21.—IB. Voyage dans l’Am. du Nord, III, 1843, 296. Gymnokitta cyanocephala, “PR. MAX. 1850,” BP. Conspectus, 1850, 382.—CASSIN, Illust. I, VI, 1854, 165, pl. xxviii.—NEWBERRY, Rep. P. R. R. VI, IV, 1857, 83.—BAIRD, Birds N. Am. 1858, 574.—MAX. Cab. J. VI, 1858, 193.—COOPER, Orn. Cal. 1, 1870, 292. Psilorhinus cyanocephalus, GRAY, Genera. Cyanocorax cassini, M’CALL, Pr. A. N. Sc. V, June, 1851, 216.
SP. CHAR. Wings considerably longer than the tail, and reaching to within an inch of its tip. Tail nearly even. General color dull blue, paler on the abdomen, the middle of which is tinged with ash; the head and neck of a much deeper and more intense blue, darker on the crown. Chin and forepart of the throat whitish, streaked with blue. Length, 10.00; wing, 5.90; tail, 4.50; tarsus, 1.50. Young bird not differing in markings.
HAB. Rocky Mountains of Colorado, to Cascade Mts. of California and Oregon. Not on the Pacific coast? South to New Mexico and Arizona.
The female is appreciably different from the male, both in size and plumage, being smaller, and of a light bluish-ash tint. This difference is readily appreciable when the birds are seen flying.
HABITS. Maximilian’s Jay was discovered and first described by that eminent naturalist, Maximilian, Prince of Wied, in his book of travels in North America, published in 1841. Mr. Edward Kern, who was connected with Colonel Fremont’s exploring expedition in 1846, was the first to bring specimens of this interesting and remarkable bird to the notice of American naturalists, transmitting them to the Philadelphia Academy. The specimens procured by its discoverer were met with by him on Maria’s River, one of the tributaries of the Upper Missouri, in the extreme northern portion of our northwestern territory, a point much farther north than it has been met with by any other naturalist. As this species has since been seen in large numbers in New Mexico, it may be presumed to extend its movements over quite an extended area of distribution in the region of the Rocky Mountains.
According to the more recent observations of Mr. Ridgway, the Maximilian Jay inhabits exclusively the nut-pine and cedar woods on the interior mountain ranges, and is one of the most characteristic birds of those regions. This species he states to be eminently gregarious, even breeding in colonies, and in winter congregating in flocks, sometimes of thousands. Ever restless and in motion, as it moves it is constantly uttering its curious, querulous notes. It is a very conspicuous bird, and is one well worthy of particular attention. Its blue color is the only thing suggestive of its affinity to the Jay. All its habits are different, and its appearance is quite peculiar. It is as essentially migratory as the Ectopistes migratoria, its coming and its going being quite as sudden and uncertain. On one occasion, in visiting a nut-pine wood, Mr. Ridgway found it full of roving, noisy troops of these birds, but upon visiting the same locality the next day not one could be seen.
He also states that these birds are exceedingly early in their nesting, as he met with companies of fully fledged young flying about on the 21st of April. Near Carson City, April 20, 1868, he found these birds abundant among the scattered cedars and nut-pines on the lower slopes of the hills. They were in pairs, often three or four pairs in company.
The notes of this bird are both peculiar and curious. The usual ones are said to have some resemblance to the querulous wailings of the Screech Owl; but none, in his opinion, have any resemblance to the cry of the Catbird.
It flies very swiftly, but with a gentle floating motion, very much in the manner of the Robin. In its movements among the small cedars, it generally alighted upon the summit of a tree, and, quietly sitting there, would look about in the manner of the Picicorvus columbianus. In flying, it continually uttered a very peculiar querulous note, resembling very much one of the notes of the Magpie,—the peculiarly soft note of that bird uttered during the love-season, or when its nest is approached. In searching among the cedars, Mr. Ridgway found several of its nests. Nearly all had been deserted, and there were several families of fully fledged young flying about. One nest contained four fully feathered young. When these had been taken, and placed in a hat, they all jumped out, squalling vociferously. These nests were all saddled upon horizontal branches of cedars, and, except in their greater bulk, they closely resembled the nest of the eastern Blue Jay.
In autumn and in winter the large flocks of these birds, as they fly back and forth over the hills, present a very peculiar appearance. Their flight is then very swift.
Dr. Kennerly, in November, 1853, frequently saw large flocks of these birds between the Puebla of Laguna and the Sierra Madre, about a hundred miles west of Albuquerque, in New Mexico. They were found chiefly frequenting the watercourses, and when startled would circle around, rising higher above their heads, uttering their singular cries; then suddenly descending they would alight in the top of some tree on the adjoining cliffs. He compares its voice to that of the common Catbird.
Dr. T. C. Henry also repeatedly noticed these birds in the vicinity of Fort Webster, in New Mexico. He first met with them near San Miguel, in July, 1852, where he observed a party of about thirty flitting through the cedars along the roadside. They were chiefly young birds, and were constantly alighting on the ground for the purpose of capturing lizards, which they killed with great readiness, and devoured. After that he repeatedly, in winter, saw these birds near Fort Webster, and usually in flocks of about forty or fifty. They evinced great wariness, and were very difficult of approach.
The flocks would usually alight near the summit of a hill and pass rapidly down its sides, all the birds keeping quite near to each other, and frequently alighting on the ground. They appeared to be very social, and kept up a continual twittering note. This bird, so far as Dr. Henry observed it, is exclusively a mountain species, and never seen on the plains or bottom-lands, and was never observed singly, or even in a single pair, but always in companies.
Dr. Newberry met with this species in the basin of the Des Chutes, in Oregon. He first noticed it in September. Early every morning flocks of from twenty-five to thirty of these birds came across, in their usual straggling flight, chattering as they flew to the trees on a hill near the camp, and then, from tree to tree, they made their way to the stream to drink. He describes their note, when flying or feeding, as a frequently repeated ca-ca-că. Sometimes, when made by a straggler separated from mate or flock, it was rather loud and harsh, but was usually soft and agreeable. When disturbed, their cry was harsher. They were very shy, and could only be shot by lying in wait for them. Subsequently he had an opportunity of seeing them feed, and of watching them carefully as they were eating the berries of the cedars, and in their habits and cries they seemed closely to resemble Jays. A specimen, previously killed, was found with its crop filled with the seeds of the yellow pine.
Dr. Cooper has seen specimens of this bird from Washoe, just east of the California State line, and he was informed by Mr. Clarence King that they frequent the junipers on mountains near Mariposa.
From Dr. Coues we learn that this bird is very abundant at Fort Whipple, where it remains all the year. It breeds in the retired portions of the neighboring mountains of San Francisco and Bill Williams, the young leaving the nest in July. As the same birds are ready to fly in April, at Carson City, it may be that they have two broods in Arizona. During the winter they collect in immense flocks, and in one instance Dr. Coues estimates their number at a thousand or more. In a more recent contribution to the Ibis (April, 1872), Dr. Coues gives a more full account of his observations in respect to this bird. In regard to geographical range he considers its distribution very nearly the same with that of the Picicorvus. Mr. Aiken has recently met with these birds in Colorado Territory, where, however, Mr. Allen did not obtain specimens. General McCall found these birds abundant near Santa Fé, in New Mexico, at an altitude Of seven thousand feet; and the late Captain Feilner obtained specimens at Fort Crook, in Northeastern California. Dr. Coues considers its range to be the coniferous zone of vegetation within the geographical area bounded eastward by the foot-hills and slopes of the Rocky Mountains; westward by the Cascade and Coast ranges; northward, perhaps to Sitka, but undetermined; and somewhat so southward, not traced so far as the tierra fria of Mexico.
Dr. Coues adds that, like most birds which subsist indifferently on varied animal or vegetable food, this species is not, strictly speaking, migratory, as it can find food in winter anywhere except at its loftiest points of distribution. A descent of a few thousand feet from the mountains thus answers all the purposes of a southward journey performed by other species, so far as food is concerned, while its hardy nature enables it to endure the rigors of winter. According to his observations, this bird feeds principally upon juniper berries and pine seeds, and also upon acorns and other small hard fruits.
Dr. Coues describes this bird as garrulous and vociferous, with curiously modulated chattering notes when at ease, and with extremely loud harsh cries when excited by fear or anger. It is also said to be restless and impetuous, as if of an unbalanced mind. Its attitudes on the ground, to which it frequently descends, are essentially Crow-like, and its gait is an easy walk or run, very different from the leaping manner of progress made by the Jays. When perching, its usual attitude is stiff and firm. Its flight resembles that of the Picicorvus. After breeding, these birds unite in immense flocks, but disperse again in pairs when the breeding-season commences.
Nothing, so far, has been published in regard to the character of the eggs.